wow

We were at BB's finishing dinner at around 9pm, when the severe weather alerts started rolling in. Checking the weather radar showed a storm about 10 minutes away heading right for us. Initially we decided to wait for it to hit us, but just as it started to rain decibel45 remembered that he left the window open at home, so we split.

As I drove north on 183, the rain started coming down harder and harder, until I could see sheets of it illuminated by the streetlights. I had to set the windshield wipers to extra-fast and it hardly helped. I could only see the tail lights of the SUV in front of me going slower and slower. Cars were pulled off to the side of the freeway, but I decided it was safer to keep moving and to exit the freeway as soon as I could.

The exit ramp was essentially stop and go traffic, but I couldn't see anything at all further than one car ahead. The picture on the right shows many cars and trucks huddled under a gas station canopy, for protection from the elements. There was golf ball size hail in other parts of town, so I guess people wanted to avoid that possibility. (I didn't notice any hail.)

Driving on the surface roads was interesting because the rain was coming down so fast the water didn't even have a chance to drain off the road. There was several inches of water in places where water normally wouldn't collect at all. Fortunately, I didn't have to drive through any places where it would collect, as I probably would have had to stop or go around.

I've never driven in conditions quite that intense before. It would also have been fun to stay at BB's on the patio and watch it go by, but I suspect we would have been drenched.

After I finally made it home, half an hour later the sky was almost completely clear. I love Texas weather!