“A Chance of Afternoon Thunderstorms” they said.
My “Ten Day Extended Forecast” Graph had a short spike of 75% chance of precipitation. Well, no one expects the weatherman to be right, but the Houston area was hit by what they’re calling a derecho or some such. 80 mile per hour winds, some gusts over 100. Circulation on a large scale.
Hey, it’s almost hurricane season, been through half a dozen, no problem, right?
Wrong. Hurricanes you see coming days, and sometimes weeks ahead of them hitting. You check your stocks of food pick up a few items, maybe an extra flat of water. Extra loaf of bread, maybe a half gallon of milk to freeze, maybe some fresh fruit would be nice if your stuck for a couple of weeks. Then you leisurely fill up all your water storage, and as it approaches, do a last load of laundry, take a shower, then fill the bath tubs with water for force flushing. (Water well=no power, no water.) Got plenty of time to top a few things off, then kick back prepared to be isolated for a couple weeks.
But this? Totally no time for last minute prep. I mean, I did notice it was getting dark out, the wind picking up a bit. Then the loud electrical GRRRZINNNGBOOM! From the distance as the lights go out and UPS starts beeping.
“Wow! A tree must have hit a transformer or something out there to the north.” Then it got even darker, and the light rain turned into a deluge.
So, twenty-three hours later, our neighborhood regains power, leaving the writer pondering her preps, both for natural disasters and other bad things that can happen.
First don’t leave it for the last minute. Because sometimes it comes out of nowhere and smacks you in the face with how you’ve let the preps slide, the laundry undone, and no water stored for any purpose.
Anyhow, this time the worst problem was hating to go out to dinner a bit grungy and having to drink warm sodas.
Next time I’ll be prepared! Honest! I will keep on top of the preps, and always have some water stored.
Mad Genius Club 
5 responses to “Unplanned For”
Pam, a retired Geophysithith might remember the Missing Calculations in “Climate Science” are those very tough water & cloud calculations. Why, they STILL use their handy Variable Constants to cook their Predictions, eh?
The Weather Forecasters now have Doppler Radar to use to follow Thunderstorms, as individuals, then merely as groups, when the air gets really frisky. Grin
I imagine that the deep freeze will get a small ‘helper’ that is dedicated to frozen water, while the hot water heater will get a cold brother that is merely a 300 gallon storage device, self-renewing due to being plumbed into the toilet’s water supply.
Regards from the Great White North, south Alberta God’s Country, in Lethbridge, Alberta
Bigfoot, aka Neil Frandsen
Who just had an encounter with Microsoft “Copilot”, and Bing.
I am negatively impressed, took 5 minutes to figure out where this comment had been hidden! Grin. nhf.
I grew up in tornado/thunderstorm country, with occasional side helpings of blizzard (Kansas City). Got hooked on ionized atmospheres and plummeting thermometers (I mean that literally — watching Time/Temp displays outside of stores ratcheting down in live time at speed as a front barrels in, while the light turns greenish.)
I love that feeling far more than I panic at lack of prep. The lack of prep might kill me, I suppose, but the lack of that feeling would make life less worth living. Nothing better than standing outside with a view watching a front approaching and then making a dash inside as the skies turn black. Lots of things might kill me or at least cause inconvenience, but few can give me that much pleasure, and what’s life for, after all?
I hope to die with an “oops” on my lips more than safely in bed, the last one alive. Fatalism has its joys.
I love being outside when a cold front hits and you *feel* that temperature drop.
And Thunderstorms! I love sitting beside an open window get the full audio experience.
But being caught so unprepared for a day of no electricity really irritated me.
When I was at Flat State U, I kept a “tornado bag” with emergency supplies, jump drives with my most recent dissertation and other work on them, and critical research notes in it. What I wasn’t prepared for was upstream rain that caused a catchment pond to overflow and come within two feet of flooding my apartment (mine was one of only two ground-floor units that didn’t get water in it.) It seems the city had neglected to heed warnings about removing silt and mud from the overflow basin until it couldn’t hold overflow any longer. Surprise!
Been through two derechos – and quite a few monsoon high winds.
I really only prepare for monsoon (earliest I’ve ever seen it is third week of June). So next month, I’ll make sure there’s room in the deep freezer for a bag of ice, a couple dozen cold bricks, and have two or three extra flats of water (above what I keep in long term prep stocks).
Main worry right now is that I only have a reasonably safe month to get this roof done. That’s my daily morning push right now – stripping the roofing off, and being ready to get the rest done when I can lay hands on the son for a weekend (he’s off at annual training until early next month).