Long term drought for Texas- :-(

Bird · May 23, 2011

I was up on a ladder yesterday, checking and cleaning rain gutters, and I could see where some of the hail hit the shingles. I've seen new roofs going on several houses in my neighborhood the last couple of weeks, since we've had hail on April 11, 15, & 24, as well as May 1, 2, 20 and again today. I had a guy from a roofing company coming this afternoon to inspect the roof, but since we got another .48" of rain and 2 rounds of quarter inch hail today, he called to postpone until about noon tomorrow. I've now gotten almost as much rain this month (6.26") as we got the first 4 months of the year combined (6.58").

bikerdib · May 23, 2011

Man, I wish you could send some of that rain down my way (no hail though, thank you very much!).

I just completed a 1 acre pond on my weekend property and now all I have is a big hole in the ground. Haven't had but about 2 inches since September. I think they need to come up with a drought level worse than "exceptional" which is what they are rating this area as.

BTW, my property is about 80 miles SW of Houston, toward Victoria.

Western · May 23, 2011

Bird,
Now I'm going to have to go up and check my roof, with all the hail this year I may just leave the ladder up.

Sure as the world after a new install it will hail again.

If I end up needing one, I am going to check if they still have that $1500 "guvment" tax credit for a metal roof and make the switch from composite shingles.

Bikerdib,

That is a shame, we are all suffering in Texas, but a few of us have gotten some reprieve. You guy's down South are carrying the load now. Sucks to be there and have all that gulf salt water (mixed 50:1 thanks to BP) that does you no good.

Bird · May 24, 2011

Dennis, I'd much prefer a metal roof but don't know what the cost difference would be. A neighbor, who is getting a new roof, told my wife yesterday that his roof was replaced in 1993 and he wanted a metal roof at that time, but the city building codes would not permit it. Don't know if that's still the case or not.

jinman · May 24, 2011

We are in Norman, OK where we attended a granddaughter's HS graduation last night. It looked like rain here all evening, but nothing fell. I guess I'll find if there was more rain in Sunset when we get home today in the afternoon and I can check my gage.

tallyho8 · May 24, 2011

We have still had less than 1/2" of rain in April and May combined.(10" is normal) Glad I am not growing any crops this year.

bikerdib · May 24, 2011

Bird said:
Dennis, I'd much prefer a metal roof but don't know what the cost difference would be. A neighbor, who is getting a new roof, told my wife yesterday that his roof was replaced in 1993 and he wanted a metal roof at that time, but the city building codes would not permit it. Don't know if that's still the case or not.

LOL, I had to scroll back and check if you were responding to the wrong person. My name is Dennis also; my web handle is bikerdib.

Western · May 24, 2011

You would think an insurance company would also have incentives to change to a metal roof. Min "appears" fine right now, biggest hail I think we have got was around dime, or smaller. Most has been almost a "sleet".

Bird · May 24, 2011

The guy from the roofing company (who is also a state licensed adjuster) came today and made some pictures, so now we'll see what the insurance company adjuster says.

jinman · May 24, 2011

My insurance agent gave us a big discount for our metal roof, but only because it is 26 gage. She said 29 gage would not hold up like the 26 gage. Makes sense. . .

Oh yes, she also said dents were not counted on metal roofs. You had to have hailstones penetrate before the roof would be replaced. I guess if the hail pulverized the decking below it would mean replacement also, but simple dings and dents are not considered enough to replace the metal roof.

We got home to find our road dusty and our rain gage empty.

I still have a great reason to smile because we got 1" on the 22nd. . . and I got out of Oklahoma without being lynched by Okla. City Thunder fans.

blueriver · May 24, 2011

jinman said:
My insurance agent gave us a big discount for our metal roof, but only because it is 26 gage. She said 29 gage would not hold up like the 26 gage. Makes sense. . . Oh yes, she also said dents were not counted on metal roofs. You had to have hailstones penetrate before the roof would be replaced. I guess if the hail pulverized the decking below it would mean replacement also, but simple dings and dents are not considered enough to replace the metal roof.

We got home to find our road dusty and our rain gage empty. I still have a great reason to smile because we got 1" on the 22nd. . . and I got out of Oklahoma without being lynched by Okla. City Thunder fans.

Same here ... when we put the metal roof on the house we got a substantial discount ...

SixHoeBob · May 24, 2011

Have you guys in Texas considered re-shingling some roofs? If you had enough roofs in progress, it might rain. Kind of like a roofers rain dance.

Bird · May 24, 2011

SixHoeBob said:
Have you guys in Texas considered re-shingling some roofs? If you had enough roofs in progress, it might rain. Kind of like a roofers rain dance.

Maybe that's what's doing it here. There are already a number of new roofs in the neighborhood in the last 2 weeks and several more, including mine, that will likely be replaced in the next couple of weeks.:laughing:

Western · May 24, 2011

Had a funnel go over about 30 mins ago, loud as H$## and allot of hail. Thing looked like a snake across the sky.

Another on went through near my parents outside Springtown, that one hit the ground. You Boys East of us take cover!!

Bird · May 24, 2011

We had the city sirens blaring, the Code Red system called both our phones to tell us to take cover, and then we got a little more rain; maybe .09".

Western · May 24, 2011

Bird, good you guy's are ok. I saw that rotation just South of you. Theses are some mean, quick storms.

jinman · May 25, 2011

We got back from Norman, OK just in timebefore the storms. My family lives in Newcastle, OK and I was there night-before-last for my granddaughters graduation from Newcastle High. I was a nervous wreck watching the news and weather yesterday and realizing that big tornado was going right up I44. Earlier the one missed Okla. City by going north of it, but the later storm took much better "aim" as it followed a path. My family saw some damage closeby, but none to their stuff as far as I can tell. I think Goldsby, OK saw the most damage.

In the middle of the storms later in the day, my stepson who drives the ambulance in Norman, OK was home and got a call to come into work so he could make runs to rescue and treat injuries in the Norman and Newcastle area. His SO and her kids were in the neighbor's storm shelter, but he had to be out in the mess and driving an ambulance. That's just part of the job.

Like Bird, we had heavy storms and funnel sightings all around us, but only about 1/10" of rain and no hail whatsoever. It was a typical storm with pockets that were really bad and others that were hardly anything.

Bird · May 25, 2011

I spoke too soon when I said we only got .09" of rain.:laughing: I went to bed a little after 9 p.m. and the radar looked like all the heavy weather was past us. But this morning my wife tells me we had wind, hail, and rain last night after I went to bed. Puddles were standing on the patio in the breezeway so I can tell there was a fair amount of wind to blow rain all the way through there, and I had about .65" of rain in the gauge. So if I've recorded it right, that makes an even 7' of rain this month.

Western · May 25, 2011

Your right Bird, the last storm line that came through was more bark than bite, but it was a long stretch of rain following the dry line. The first set in the afternoon where the "nasty" ones.

Jim, you guy's where up there ,or had "been" up there? Yesterday afternoon was bad for the folks in Oklahoma, I sure wouldn't want to have been driving in that mess. I haven't seen the news this morning yet, but last night they where reporting 6 fatalities around OKC.

I feel very fortunate. I've only actually seen 2 tornadoes in my life, the one in Cleburne back in 77 or 78? and the little one yesterday, getting under a desk ISN'T an option!! 1st time I have ever seen hail "flutter" around like a snow flake.

jinman · May 25, 2011

Western said:
Jim, you guy's where up there ,or had "been" up there? Yesterday afternoon was bad for the folks in Oklahoma, I sure wouldn't want to have been driving in that mess. I haven't seen the news this morning yet, but last night they where reporting 6 fatalities around OKC.

Yep, we rolled out of Norman to come south around 9:30 AM yesterday morning. A short stop in Thackerville to lose all our "allowance" money and then we headed home. We got here a little before 2 PM and turned on the TV to watch the weather show. What a mess! Another sad thing is that the storms left Oklahoma and Kansas and headed again towards Joplin. I haven't heard if they had more storms in MO last night, but I'd bet they did.