Rain, sweet glorious rain...

[hemibee]

Finally some rain. On one of the Off-Road sites I visit we are not allowed to say the "R" word because it has a way of really screwing up our woods riding but this year the restriction on the "R" word has been lifted in hopes people would say it enough it would once again mess up our woods riding. With that in mind, it sure seems odd I would be posting anything about rain in a favorable way but I have this to say...
RAIN, SWEET GLORIOUS RAIN...

The weather pattern around here has been all screwed up since late January. Dallas has been getting more rain than Houston which is really strange and the humidity levels in and around Houston have been low. Finally yesterday we got our humidity back as it was up to 74%. Prior to that we were lucky if it reached 45% which for us is DRY, for the Hill Country, West Texas and the Dallas area they would call that humid. I just shake my head and tell them to come visit us any time of the year and I'll show them what humidity really is. Right now we have 95% humidity and it is GREAT!!!

I woke up this morning to a really odd sound... RAIN was hitting my roof!!! So far I have one rain gauge that reads a little high showing just shy of 5 inches, a second one that is a little closer to believable showing about 2 31/32 inches of rain. My neighbor is reporting 3 1/16 inches so I'll round it off and say we have received 3 inches of rain today and the chance for a little more this afternoon or early evening.

Several of us were talking about rain related songs and then one of the radio stations started doing the same and then started playing those songs to celebrate the first rains this area has seen since January. There have been a few area showers but not area wide rains like we are supposed to have been getting. No one understood why I suggested the song I did but I don't think they really listened to the song. I suggested it because we hadn't seen the rains in so long we were starting to get the idea we were going to turn into the Great East Texas Desert...

[video=youtube;zSAJ0l4OBHM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSAJ0l4OBHM[/video]

And now some real rain tunes...

[video=youtube;Gu2pVPWGYMQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu2pVPWGYMQ[/video]

[video=youtube;t30cX6OGO0U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t30cX6OGO0U[/video]

[video=youtube;1pSyYhRYeIM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pSyYhRYeIM[/video]

[video=youtube;EKmYlnQv_dg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKmYlnQv_dg[/video]

[video=youtube;8q6fLhnwEKk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q6fLhnwEKk[/video]

[video=youtube;JpUIO8GV0kI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpUIO8GV0kI&feature=related[/video]

[video=youtube;6s9M-52fRGU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s9M-52fRGU&feature=related[/video]

And then if we really got some rain...

[video=youtube;6MRLoqIxr3o]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MRLoqIxr3o&feature=fvst[/video]

And the #1 rain song for Texas could only be from one source... STEVIE RAY

[video=youtube;tWLw7nozO_U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWLw7nozO_U[/video]

Have a great day... I think I'll go out and play in the...
RAIN!!!

 

[CarlS]

I am glad you got some rain. We are supposed to get some this weekend - naturally, when I will have a new bike! But I am not complaining,; we need every drop we can get.

 

[hemibee]

The last time we had some really good rains, multiple days of it was right after I bought my Tiger. Maybe I need to follow your lead and get me another. I wonder if I could catch my wife at a weak moment and get one?


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[CarlS]

Go ahead, Tony!

 

[DaveM]

Tony I know how you feel we had not had any rain our side in two years and when this last bit came I just stood outside looking at it. Even though it flooded no one complained too much about that.

 

[Rocky]

We have never ever had any drought conditions in eastern Canada. In fact, it's just the opposite - too much rain:y14:
The storm systems sweep from west to east right over us and with them come lots of rain.
This spring in particular we have had above average rain and that's saying something
But this week we've had sun every day at long last, however the rain will be back Friday night just in time for the weekend and our bike events:y14:
Having never been in a drought situation it's hard for us here to appreciate the hardship it causes some of you.

 

[DaveM]

Well I think it's what you get used to I suppose as Africa has always been a hot dry climate overall. Not sure I could handle rain day in and day out like you guys seem to have

 

[The Seeker]

We have never ever had any drought conditions in eastern Canada. In fact, it's just the opposite - too much rain:y14:
The storm systems sweep from west to east right over us and with them come lots of rain.
This spring in particular we have had above average rain and that's saying something
But this week we've had sun every day at long last, however the rain will be back Friday night just in time for the weekend and our bike events:y14:
Having never been in a drought situation it's hard for us here to appreciate the hardship it causes some of you.

Ditto here!

 

[Rocky]

Ditto here!

Yes Seeker, you and I often share the same storm systems.
You get it, then a couple of days later (or sooner) we get it:y8:

 

[The Seeker]

As far as the USA goes, Pittsburgh is only 2nd to Seattle in number of overcast days - with only 51 average days annually of sunshine.

But we don't have to spend much money on sunscreen!

 

[hemibee]

So far this year Houston is 15 inches below normal in rainfall. 15 inches is bad but that does not look at the rainfall shortage during the latter part of last year.

Houston was built on marsh/swamp land along Buffalo Bayou and is expected to be wet or at least humid. We have been in a weather pattern that has shifted our rains to the north and this is due to a La Nina in the Pacific La Nina's shift the jet stream to the north and allows high pressure to build over us and then it just sits there pushing our normal rain fall to the east and north. The second hazard of this weather pattern is the extreme low humidity we have been having. 50% humidity is mild for us, 70% and you will start hearing some folks talking about it being a bit damp but in reality, if you can't see and drink the air then it is too dry for Houston weather.

Some trivia, the Astrodome was built due to humidity and the wimpy players that couldn't handle breathing liquid air. It was pushed as for the comfort of fans but it was really due to the complaints of teams having to play the Colt .45's in the old stadium. An added benefit of the Astrodome was no rain outs.

Extra trivia. How many ball games were rained out while the Astrodome was the Astros home field? One game is all I remember when a bit of tropical weather moved thru the area and the Pittsburg Pirates couldn't make it to the Dome because they couldn't make thru the flooded streets. There may have been more that I don't remember but this is what I do remember, I'll have to double check to see if I remember this correctly.


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[The Seeker]

Extra trivia. How many ball games were rained out while the Astrodome was the Astros home field? One game is all I remember when a bit of tropical weather moved thru the area and the Pittsburg Pirates couldn't make it to the Dome because they couldn't make thru the flooded streets. There may have been more that I don't remember but this is what I do remember, I'll have to double check to see if I remember this correctly.

Watch it.....You are treading on thin ice there!

Pittsburghers are very proud of our "H" at the end of Pittsburgh

 

[CarlS]

The coastal Southeast is definitely humid!

 

[hemibee]

Watch it.....You are treading on thin ice there!

Pittsburghers are very proud of our "H" at the end of Pittsburgh

Oops, stupid spell checker and I didn't check the spell checker to make sure it made the right corrections as I was typing. Just typed Pittsburgh again and it once again dropped the H so will try to remember to double check it.


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[CarlS]

We just got some much needed rain in the form of summer thunderstorms. We lost power for about an 1.5 hours. But we needed every drop of that wonderful rain. It cooled us down from 97 to 77. Love those afternoon and evening thunderstorms.

 

[The Seeker]

Oops, stupid spell checker and I didn't check the spell checker to make sure it made the right corrections as I was typing. Just typed Pittsburgh again and it once again dropped the H so will try to remember to double check it.

The spellchecker probably doesn't even know since of all the "burgs" in the USA, Pittsburgh is the only one that sticks an "H" on the end.

As I mentioned in another post, it was named by a Scottish General and was originally meant to be pronounced "PittsBORO" like Edinburgh, Scotland. Later on, the Postmaster General of the USA decided that all "burgs" should end only with a "G" so Pittsburgh became Pittsburg for about 17 years. The people of Pittsburgh and the State of Pennsylvania complained enough that they were eventually granted special dispensation to rename it back to it's first and present spelling with an "H".

 

[CarlS]

That is a bit of interesting history.

 

[The Seeker]

Most Pittsburghers don't even know that it should be pronounced PittsBORO and everyone calls it PittsBERG.

Then again, since this area was settled by the French originally, we have many French-named cities which everyone butchers the pronunciation.

Examples: North Versailles. It should be pronounced North VERSI with a long "I" at the end like the French palace Versailles. People here call it North VERSALES.

DuBois is pronounced around here as "DUBOYS" instead of the correct DuBWA