Wild, crazy weather!

Man, alot to blog about!

First off, Dean as of this evening is now a Category 5 'cane with 160mph sustained winds!! Yowza! That'll clean off the cobwebs from the boathouse for sure. ;-) All people along the middle and lower Yucatan Peninsula are bracing for a direct hit. I can only hope that everybody has been moved safely inland and into very sturdy shelter. Dean is moving at a good clip and should remain above CAT 2 status for awhile after coming ashore. Massive storms like this don't wind down on a dime. Unfortunately, I fear that we will hear of far too many deaths from Mexico as Dean rampages westward.

For Texas, we have been spared the bigger second punch from Dean that was feared late last week. Erin was bad enough with lots of serious flooding from NW TX into the hill country around San Antonio. Oklahoma got seriously slammed too with some massive flooding around Kingfisher. Some of the CNN video I saw was unbelievable as the entire area around Kingfisher was nothing but one massive lake as far as you could see.

Erin also pulled a trick and pretended to become a strong tropical storm early Saturday morning. In the most amazing post-tropical system deja vu I have ever seen, Erin suddenly intensified developing an eye and sustained winds of 50mph and higher gusts!!! The radar presentation says it all. Jay McCoy provided the following incredible link: Tropical Storm Erin? Amazingly, the surface pressures dropped rapidly with about 29.57 the lowest I saw.

Check out the following images for more amazing data:

http://americium.gcn.ou.edu/ts_erin.png
(Donald Giuliano's image he posted to Stormtrack)

Watonga, OK Meteogram (credit to Rich Thomspon)

Oklahoma Mesonet(credit to Rich Thompson)

Another good radar image. (credit to Rich Thompson)

So, did it actually become a tropical storm? I'd say the data above would support that conclusion. Of course, tropical storms require warm, ocean water right? I don't see a sepcific definition of that (akin to the tired and worn out "what is a tornado" arguments that pop up about as frequently as the amber light bar debate). Well, that portion of OK around Kingfisher to Watonga was practically an ocean with all of the flood waters around there. Oh, and remember the first two "tropical storms" so early in the season this year? Erin over Oklahoma looked alot more impressive and more of a TS than those systems ever did.

That's my argument. :-) I welcome other opinions and arguments as well...particularly those that disagree. I only ask that you present some sort of data or other information to support your position. Not that I'm being snotty, I just want to know what I might be missing.

And, if that weren't enough, we had some vicious storms today from near Amarillo to a big monster up in W/SW KS. The cell close to Amarillo looked pretty cool with an explosive, billowing updraft. I didn't have my camera, so I had to race home and get it. As soon as I did, I snapped the pic below just prior to it gaining a SVR on it. Of course, as soon as I drove towards it, the powers of the Stevoid vanquished it into a puff of water vapor. ;-)

I also finally broke down and got a good MP3 player. Those that know me know I am very passionate about my music and that I have a decent collection. I was wanting something of no less 30gb and preferrably more as I continue to grow my collection. I didn't want to go the IPod route because of the issues Steve Miller of OK had with his (mainly the irritating, constant updates everytime he synched it up) and that I usually don't like to follow the crowd. ;-) So, after alot of research and decision-making, I ended up with a Creative ZEN Vison: M 60GB.

I can also play movies, show pictures, FM radio, an organizer, voice recorder, and an amazing quality 2.5" screen. But, the main thing is the music. The audio quality is excellent and has a 5-band EQ that works pretty good. I would have preferred a 7-band though. The scroll pad took a little getting used to, but now I love it. My only complaint is that the sync software that comes with it is kind of weak. Creating playlists is a pain. The player itself, you can't add a song to an existing playlist..nor can you group by a star rating...even with the software. But, that is my only complaint. I can't believe how many songs I've crammed onto it with plenty of room left over. :-)

Lastly, speaking of music, I just discovered a very unique and talented artist from here in West Texas. If I asked you to guess what instrument he played, I bet you'd guess piano towards the last. His name is Doug Smith. I caught a special about him on the local PBS station this evening and was instantly hooked. His story behind the music and his biography were very interesting. In short, he attempts to capture the spirit of all things "West Texas" in his music with such songs as "Tumbleweed Rag" among many others. I urge you to take a listen. I'll be picking up some CDs soon.

Unfortunately and quite tragically, I also learned that he was recently in a serious accident. He has suffered serious spinal injury and is undergoing recovery. There is serious concern about neurological injury affecting his hands. Hopefully, he will pull though completely. Details about his recovery efforts are on his website. Just another reason to pick up a CD or two if you like his music.

Well, that's it for this go 'round. I hope everybody has a good week and keeps their favorite cold beverage at the ready to help everybody beat the heat. August is waning. That's a good thing considering we set a record today of 101F.