August 24, 1999


     On August 24, 1999, a severe thunderstorm moved through the Houston area. I was student teaching that day and had a very long day, so I went home very tired. So tired, in fact, that usual quick look at the sky was replaced by me juggling all of my books and finding my keys. All I wanted to do was go home and take a short nap before Open House that night.
Carrie, my sister, came in about 10minutes later. She was yelling for me to turn the TV on. I turned it on and there before me was Frank Billingsley and the most awesome radar!

Radar Intellicast

Satellite Image

I jumped up listening to the weather radio and Frank at the same time, while gathering my camera equipment. In 3 minutes, I was out the door and on my way to the closest field. I stayed in my sister's van to access the situation. The storm was moving rapidly my direction and was an eerie green. I drove to a safer spot beside the field and began to video the storm. I turned back to see the torn edge of the storm. The cloud extensions were twisting quickly. Notice on these pictures you can see the bottom of the picture is rather dark. This darkness is sand and debris that was kicked up by the storm. 

Click on the following images to see a larger picture.

 

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Series 1 from video

One extension began to become more organized and moved toward the ground then lost strength.

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Series 3 from video a brief gustando

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Series 2 from video showing a brief gustando.

The lightning was constant. I took several close shots with my video camera.

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     This lightning bolt was terribly close! The spots around the lightning bolt are from rain droplets on the windshield of the van. Soon after this bolt the wind kicked up so much and was roaring so bad that I had to go into the nearest building for some protection.

    The storm lasted about one exciting hour. I went home and quickly changed clothes and went to the open house. What a day!!!

 

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