Watch The Gulf

What could be HURRICANE IDA is spinning up in the western Caribbean. Once it crosses and gets by the Yucatan Peninsula, it will be in the very warm waters of the southern Gulf of Mexico and that means it will get way stronger than the current tropical depression status. Expect them to start evacuating oil rigs this weekend out on the Gulf and refineries will shutdown soon afterwards. This will affect everyone nationwide as have the ongoing spot gasoline shortages caused by increased traveling and a shortage  of drivers for fuel trucks. While some of the tracks take it into the coast near New Orleans, other models indicate the Golden Triangle--basically where Texas and Louisiana meet---and home to much of the nation's oil refineries and petro chemical plants. 

So, even if you are nowhere near the coast, keep your gas tank full and stock up on grocery items as what happens on the coast will have a worse ripple effect than normal because of the ongoing supply issues in a variety of industries. If it hits, there are going to be a lot of delays in shipping goods and fuel as a ton of stuff goes through that region. Expect gas prices to steadily increase on a daily basis for the next couple of weeks, at a bare minimum. This will be on top of the normal increase we see each year in the days running up to Labor Day. 

Weather

Despite tornado watches and warnings this afternoon and evening and a lot of worry, we are fine here at Casa Tipple in NE Dallas. When the first storm line hit during the dinner hour, it weakened right before getting here which helped us out. We have had repeated rounds of storms since, but there has not been any hail or high winds. It continues to storm as the night goes on as things are evolving into a flood event, but we are on high ground and safe from that.

Tornado Watch

All day I have worried that a major weather deal was coming despite the fact the local weather readers said our risk was low tonight for severe weather. I was born and raised here and have lived here all my life and I know the local weather readers, all transplant from god knows where, often are flat out wrong with what they predict. It just felt bad outside to me much like it does some days in the spring.

Just after 7 tonight as the radar was starting to light up to our west and southwest and a severe storm had erupted far to our east, the weather service put all of North Texas and east into Louisiana under a Tornado Watch until 2 AM. Storms continued to fire just to the west of Fort Worth and just to the southwest of the city and move northeast. Some of them have a ground speed of 55 miles per hour and are sending out ping pong up to softball sized hail and winds of 60 mph.

On their current tracks, they would miss us. However, there are indications that the storms, as they strengthen have started turning to the right and  are becoming east movers. Right turning storms mean the likelihood of a twister is increasing as is the size of hail in the storms. If they really do start tunring right, they will strengthen and head into here in another hour or so.

Received by Email: Important message from City of Dallas

Important message from City of Dallas:

Storm Debris Collection - Service Alert

Code Compliance will suspend the issuance of brush/bulky trash citations for storm debris set outs.

Sanitation Services will continue June brush/bulk service as scheduled.  Service will be delayed due to the volume of storm debris.

Normal Brush and Bulk Service will be suspended in July so crews can focus on storm debris collection. Only storm debris will collected in July.

Cost-plus service is suspended until further notice.

Please be patient as collections will be delayed.

Resident can haul to transfer stations or McCommas Bluff Landfill during designated days.  See www.dallaszerowaste.com for transfer station and landfill operating hours, restrictions, and days available to residents.

Addinionally,  DALLAS 311 on twitter reports that 41 percent of the traffic signals across the city are not working and that FLASHING RED in all directions means the intersection is a 4 way stop.

From the DPL HOMEPAGE:

The following branch locations do not have power at this time:
Bachman Lake, Lakewood, Lochwood, Oak Lawn, Park Forest, Paul Laurence Dunbar Lancaster-Kiest, Preston Royal, Skillman Southwestern, Skyline, White Rock Hills.

Dallas Storm Damage---We Are Okay

Between about 1:30 and 3 PM today we were blasted with a severe storm. Wind gusts in this area hit 75 and there is widespread damage with trees an d fences down, power outages, and debris. We also had marble sized hail and the occasional ping pong sized deal. The winds were so high in Downtown that a crane toppled across a parking garage and into a building. At one person has died and another seven are injured.

After an hour and a half our power came back on and then there was a horrendous bang as a nearby transformer blew up. Not sure where it blew, but it was close. Part of the access to the neighborhood remains blocked off because a tree fell at the end of the side street we normally go out. Additional tree damage is down our alley where a multi foot section is hanging on the power lines. Over 200K remain without power in Dallas this hour.

Numerous trees and fences have damage and are down on all sides of this old house. Somehow, despite it all, the cars are okay, the trees here stayed up, and the roof is still on and looks to be okay. How we escaped significant damage, I have no idea.

This one scared the hell out of me and I am still badly shaking tonight. I really don't know how we got off so easily, but I am very grateful.

Morning Storms

A storm line that produced wind gusts to 80 as it hit across the area this morning causing damage all across DFW has for the most part passed us. It hit before dawn as a massive squall line with some hail. Near as I can tell from inside looking out in the yard at the front and back, I think we are okay. It is still raining so I have not been outside to look around and check the roof. Local media is showing pictures this morning of numerous folks across the area who were not nearly so lucky.

Storm Damage

While there are reports of damage in the area and across Collin County-- especially over in Wylie--we missed the worst of the dinner time storms. Very high wind, heavy rain, and marble sized hail was the worst of it here with ping pong and far bigger hail to the north and east of here.

Plain and simple--we were lucky.

Plano Hail

Yesterday was one of those days where every few hours the forecast got worse. By late afternoon we had slipped into the "marginal" risk zone of severe weather. Since that often seems to mean that severe weather is definitely coming I was worried. Especially since radar seemed to indicate the storm line was beginning to the west way further out than had been predicted.

By around ten last night I knew we were in trouble for sure as there was one particular nasty storm in the line that was aimed right at us. The same storm had tried to spin up a tornado in north Fort Worth before morphing into a major hail storm. In the picture to the right from one of the local radars, the light pink area is hail to the size of golf balls. Our apartment is located just a few miles north of where it says Shepton. The Shepton deal refers to Shpeton High School where both the boys went to school.

I moved my car under the carport into the empty parking spot for the vacant apartment next door and hoped for the best. Then a few minutes later the hail began smashing down. It quickly escalated to ping pong and golf ball sized hail that tore up the few plants on the porch and broke the edges of the pots. Fortunately, we were not hit with the 50 plus mph winds that were seen elsewhere in the area. That meant that a lot of the hail came down straight or on a slight angle and missed the apartment windows and did not go under the carport.

Local media is full of images this morning showing what hail can do when it is coupled with wind and blasted into homes and cars. We got lucky. The apartment windows held despite being hit repeatedly in cringe worthy impacts and the cars seem to be okay.

Our nerves are fried. The next round of storms is supposed to be on Ester Sunday which traditionally can be a very rough day weather wise.

Severe Weather Tonight

Very unexpected severe weather moved across the Metroplex late this afternoon and evening. Four super storms formed at different points across the area. One storm formed in Western Denton county and then headed through here with small marble sized hail. It then moved down into Dallas dumping ping pong and baseball sized hail across large sections of North and East Dallas. The damage pictures from the Lakewood and North Park areas are just heartbreaking.

We got lucky here as everything seems to have survived this latest weather scare.


Kevin