angiest's WunderBlog

Posted by: angiest, 1:20 AM GMT on August 15, 2011

This is a repost from my main blog at thextremeweather.com.

I recently had an opportunity to drive over Lake Somerville dam. Lake Somerville is a reservoir formed by the damming of Yegua Creek, which is a tributary of the Brazos River.

Lake Somerville is not a terribly large lake, but it is used to provide flood control for communities downstream (including Somerville, which lies just to the east of the dam), as well as water and recreation. Lake Somerville lies within the CWA for NWS Houston/Galveston, and is one of the reservoirs tracked in their weekly drought information statements. As of August 10th, the lake was reported at 51.8% capacity, and remarked to be dropping fast. I expect the lake level was very close to 50%, or even below, at the time the following pictures were taken. It was recently reported in Houston news that a ring that was lost several years ago in about 5-6 feet of water was recently recovered from one of the new beaches.

The pictures were taken by my wife on her Palm Pre as we drove across the dam. The "beaches" are not supposed to be there, they should all be under water. Unfortunately, we were not able to get pictures of the marina, where it appeared a few boats were already beached.

In this first photo, the vehicle in the sandy area should be under water!

In the next picture, you can see a sandbar sticking well out into the lake.

The next view is looking toward the spillway, the water should be up to the embankment:

In this last view, you are looking at the Corps of Engineers' control structures, including a lake level meter that is high and dry:

From the Corps of Engineers website, here is the reverse view of the last image:

Overall, the lake seems to have dropped by about eight feet so far.

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A Prediction for the 2013 Hurricane Season

Posted by: angiest, 7:48 PM GMT on August 13, 2011

I am predicting the first named storm for 2013, Andrea, will strike near Houston-Galveston. Taken from my main blog at thextremeweather.com.I am making a bold prediction for the 2013 Atlantic Hurricane season. The first named storm of the year, Andrea, will hit the Houston-Galveston area. How can I make such a prediction? Let us take a look back in history.The era of modern tropical cyclone naming in the Atlantic basin began in 1979, when the six rotating list ...

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The Vanishing Texas River

Posted by: angiest, 2:06 AM GMT on August 02, 2011

This is reposted from my main blog: LinkThis past weekend, we made a trip to San Antonio, TX (we live in a western suburb of Houston). This trip crosses several rivers, major and minor, as well as numerous streams (including what, in my opinion, is one of the most unique place-names in Texas: Woman Hollering Creek.) I was rather looking forward to driving through squally weather from Tropical Storm Don, but, alas, that was not to be. But I did get to observe t...

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The Crescent City Connection

Posted by: angiest, 2:25 AM GMT on July 21, 2011

This past weekend we went to New Orleans. I took the following picture from the French Quarter on Sunday morning the 17th, just as a heavy rain hit.

Crescent City Connection

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GFS Futures - 12Z 12/29

Posted by: angiest, 5:28 PM GMT on September 29, 2010

I will not spend any time on newly named Tropical Storm Nichole. She is pretty well on track and is not long for this world as, within 24 hours or so from now, she is forecast to be absorbed into a non-tropical low.Beyond Nichole, GFS is still showing a very interesting pattern in the Caribbean and surrounding waters through the first half of October. The first storm forecast to form after Nichole appears to be on October 2nd in the SW Caribbean:I do not think...

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