2008 started off with a very dry format, and a high fire risk, with many fires on New Years Eve and day. We are forecast to be drier and warmer than normal through the Winter. Travis County finally went under Burn Ban conditions after New Years, and will likely remain that way until we get a significant rain event. As usual, Texas goes from one extreme to the other. One year ago, the Lake Travis level was at a record low of 645', but when the floods came in July, it rose to 701' with large scale flooding. We look forward to an active but safe Spring.

Skywarn is scheduled for Saturday February 23rd this year. Due to our new WCM joining the show in place of Larry, we will not have a slot in the program, but still plan on attending in force.

We are making the move to more scientific projects this year. They are currently in the works, and will likely receive publicity once we have gathered enough information and trial runs. We very much look forward to this aspect. Unfortunately, all funding is from our pockets, so changes will not be over night. However, we do hope they will be very significant, and on the cutting edge of weather studies.

09/14/07 - It is with very sad heart that I announce/relay that Larry Eblen of the NWS-EWX will be retiring in December. I think he has been contemplating it for a couple of years, and we knew it was just a matter of time. It is well deserved. Larry has spent many years traveling the Central Texas area giving Skywarn classes to communities, large and small. He has touched many lives, and taught probably thousands of people over the years. We will miss him greatly and wish him the very best of luck and health. Further details will be available when the time draws closer.

** Larry officially retired at the first of the year. He will be greatly missed. He has been a cornerstone in the NWS since I have been involved with weather. We wish the best of luck to him and his wife. **

08/15/07 - Tropical Storm Erin is heading across the Gulf toward the South Texas Coast today. Tropical storm warnings are posted from Freeport to the Mexico border near Brownsville. Although some local TV stations are trying to hype it as the "Storm of the Century", it will likely remain at its current status, bringing lots of rain and winds in the 40-50 mph range. The State has gone into full preparedness, staging helicopters and rescue crews in San Antonio just in case. If we are lucky, we will see some very scattered light rain from the waves being flung off it.

7/23/07- We had some scattered storms moving through the area towards the SSW. Around 6:48, NWS put out a tornado warning on a cell, stating that it was tornadic and approaching Jarrell, moving towards Georgetown. Although all radar disagreed, we scrambled and had 5 chasers around it pretty quickly. Of course it died down by the time we got to it. Chase-10, Tim Stevens caught this video capture from his home just prior to leaving out. This is a direct strike to a house across the street in his circle in Teravista.

On Tuesday / Wednesday, June 26 / 27, Marble Falls and areas of the Hill Country received over 18" of rain in some areas, which caused catastrophic flooding. Small creeks in Marble Falls became raging rivers, some 20-30 feet deep, sweeping away cars, trucks, homes, and businesses. So far, amazingly no reports of any fatalities have been made. Correction, 2 missing after a week long search. It will be a miracle if this holds true, due to the extremity and conditions of this event. All lakes are over full, and all dams are releasing water thru flood gates. More rain is expected over the next 7 days. Photos of this events damage can be seen HERE.

UPDATE: 4 missing. One found 10 days later, 3 others still missing after 3 weeks.

Update: 07/04/07 - Lake Travis is now at 701 feet and still rising. It has rained upstream almost everyday. Widespread flooding and road closures are occuring all around the lake area. Photos of local lake flooding can be seen by Clicking here.

$500 fine for passing or moving a barricade.

Class B Misdemeanor jail time for driving into water.

We had a couple more rounds of severe weather locally, both last night and today. Last nights produced a very spectacular lightning show the likes of which has not been seen in years. It was literally non stop lightning, with very strong ground strikes every 5-10 seconds, lasting for 30-40 minutes. Many power outages, very hard downpours of rain, and at least 2 microbursts or thunderstorm wind events, both in the 60-80 mph range, causing widespread damage over multiple counties. Todays storms were more shortlived, and dropped much less rain in most areas. There were reports of golfball to softball sized hail near Cedar Park, but no confirmations beyond golfball could be found. CLICK HERE for some pics of todays storms.

Another round of heavy rains came through on Thursday night-5/24, and Friday 5/25, dumping very heavy rains in essentially the same locations. The Killeen area received over 10" between the 2 incidents. While we didn't get any of the serious flooding on camera the night before, we did today. CLICK HERE for those images.

Well, we are glad to see severe weather return to Texas. TSSI has made several outings this year. Although we didn't make any runs into other states with bigger tornadoes and damage, we have had an active time in our state. Below is a pic from Harper, TX in the first week of May.

Below are a couple of lightning pics from home after we got back that night.

Some of us also had a run into the Panhandle the last week of April and caught this tornado just before it went into Tulia and did extensive damage. These are video captures of night shots below.

Central Texas finally had Winter. Beginning on Sunday 1/14, we started getting frozen precip and awoke to icy conditions and frozen roadways. This persisted as a constant jet carried moisture from the Pacific, across Mexico and over Central Texas, and eventually all the way up into Maine. On Tuesday, the sleet turned to snow. Kids were out enjoying the "Snow Day", and of course, the majority of the area shut down. Late Tuesday night, the round of snow we were supposed to get fell as rain, even though it was 28 degrees. Today (Wed. 1/17) the roads are melted, yards are still frozen, we have foot long icicles hanging from the roofs, and are facing going back to work, still under the withdrawal syndrome left over from the holidays. Some pics of my house and street can be seen HERE.

>>>>>>>>2006<<<<<<<<

07/22/06

A weak front passed through the area and triggered some showers that moved Southward across Central Texas. One cell had a weak microburst within it, causing some damage in the Georgetown area around 4:00PM. There were about 6 whole trees blown over, many large tree limbs and power lines down, and 1 or 2 power poles snapped. We surveyed the area and declared it a weak microburst, with approx. a 1/2 mile wide area of damage, and winds of 60-70 mph, lasting 5 minutes according to residents. There were also reports of golfball sized hail in Sun City. The NWS stated they never saw any winds above 50 mph indicated. Though this is within 15 miles of the Granger radar, NWS usually watches their own radar in New Braunfels, and may have not seen signs of the burst from that distance. Since the Granger radar site apparently belongs to Ft. Hood, NWS doesn't seem to make any official use of it. No injuries were reported, and crews were working on restoring power before dark.

VERY IMPORTANT LINK TO THOSE WHO LIVE NEAR THE LAKES:

HERE IS A VERY INTERESTING ANALYSIS FROM THE LCRA ON WHAT CAN BE EXPECTED WHEN WE FINALLY FACE THE DAY OF EXTREME FLOODING. IT IS CLEARLY NOT A QUESTION OF "IF" IT WILL HAPPEN, BUT WHEN. THERE ARE ALSO REALLY INTERESTING HISTORICAL PHOTOS OF PREVIOUS CATASTROPHIC FLOODING IN THE AUSTIN AREA. CLICK HERE.

On Sunday, 05/14, some storms fired up along a boundary. We had 3000-4000 capes,but some cloud cover held the temps down. One of the cells came across Burnet County. As it got to Williamson County, a tornado warning was put out on it. We were monitoring radar, and kind of all said "What???" at the same time. It showed very weak elevated rotation, but not enough to support a funnel. Allegedly a Deputy reported a funnel, and they had some damage reports in the area. We knew better and decided to run over there and check it out. We did find some damage including one building that was completely destroyed. Jeff, accompanied by other team members, did a survey and decided it was a microburst of 70-80 mph winds. Although there has been some foolish dispute by some of the media, Jeffs ruling will stand. It has been backed by other media by their screen captures, to have the 70-80 mph winds that were estimated by the survey, and the NWS has seen Jeffs survey and fully agrees. The survey can be found on the "LINKS" page.

05/04/06

For 3 nights this week, TSSI & LSSN were out chasing the weather. We had supercell tornadic hailmakers every night, but to our knowledge, no tornadoes dropped in our area. There were funnel reports, but none observed. We did drive into the hook, and what we thought was a rainwrapped funnel in Fredericksburg on Thursday night, but found no tornadic level damage afterwards.

The KXAN special "Surviving the storm" aired on the 25th at 7:00PM. It was very well done. Very special thanks to the crew: Jim Spencer, Shawn Rutherford, and Laura Skirde, and the rest of the KXAN crew that worked on it. Job well done! We have it saved on a site, but is a very large download. Click on the link below to load it.

Jeff, and Jeremy Morris with Volente Fire Dept. and a handful of other Travis County Dept's responded as the Austin/Travis County Strike Team, to the large wildland fires in the Panhandle last week. It was declared the largest wildfire in the nations history, with approx. 1 million + acres burned. They returned home Late Friday night 3/17 after 3.5 days.

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