My Crazy-Ass Local Weather

[wihogfan]

Well the "egg sized hail" prediction did result in about 5 minutes of hail, but it was BB sized. Now just rain that's supposed to continue through tomorrow night

[RVR II]

Michael is now a Cat 4 hurricane with winds of 130mph
Nothing like this has hit the Florida panhandle before. Local effects here haven't changed.

[wihogfan]

Didn't get the constant rain that they were predicting- rained hard off and on all night, but was clear this morning for awhile before the rain just started again.
Weird thing that happened though- took the dogs to the park early when it was still clear and just after we got home at around 8 AM I heard this loud thunderclap which I thought was weird due to it being clear. Turns out it wasn't thunder. Some house exploded a couple of miles away and they're currently evacuating that whole neighborhood. No details on what caused the explosion yet.

[RVR II]

Michael is almost a Cat 5 now with sustained winds at 150mph
Tropical storm watches are up for my county as a result and tropical storm warnings are up for all SC counties to my south and east

[wihogfan]

Not weather related, but the house that exploded that I thought at first was thunder really exploded-nothing left of it and it damaged the surrounding houses, blew out windows in the surrounding block, and there's debris all over for blocks. Fortunately the owners weren't at home and the only injuries were a couple of neighbors next door and were minor. Explosion could be heard 30 miles away. What caused it is under investigation.

Hit 80 yesterday...supposed to be in the 60s today, but hit 80 again. Highs next 2 days 40. Highs in the low 40s this time of year not totally unusual here, but 40 degree swing from one day to the next is.

[RVR II]

Had to have been a gas explosion to cause that kind of damage

Officially Michael came ashore as the 3rd strongest hurricane in US History at 919mb and 155mph sustained winds
The tropical storm remnants should reach my locale in a couple of hours.

[RVR II]

Had a lot of rain this morning and now the back half of the storm has moving through the area with winds shifted out of the north now..
Not sure of the rainfall total yet but I think we got a few inches out of the storm

[RVR II]

Storm cleared out yesterday evening after some brief gusty winds out of the north and got down to 51 last night.  Highs this weekend are only in the low 70s and lows dropping to the low 50s and even a low of 49 Saturday night.. 
Fall has Finally arrived here

[MartyS (Gromit)]

We got just over an inch of rain here.  This weekend it's supposed to get down into the 40s at night.

[CJones]

Wow, that sucked. We didn't get much rain, but plenty of wind. I have a 75 year old Oak tree in my back yard, and two large branches broke off. One landed in my fish pond, which is suspiciously lacking in fish. The other must have hit the house because a chunk is siding was torn off, exposing the wood (which is also 75 years old).

One of my cats came back from her morning rounds with her ears laid back and an expression like "What the hell happened out here?"  

[wihogfan]

Hit freezing here last night and high of only 38 today. Was tempted to turn on the heat this morning, but will be back up in 50 for the next couple of days.

[CJones]

Hey, did you ever find out more about that house explosion?

I would be terrified to have a gas line running into my house. I have an aunt who, while I was visiting, had a gas leak while we were at Costco. Fortunately nothing happened and we aired out the house. But I keep thinking, all you need is a gas leak and a stove with a pilot light.

[wihogfan]

I'm guessing the house explosion was a gas leak, but the investigation is expected to take weeks.
https://www.wbay.com/content/news/Crews-at-scene-of-house-explosion-in-Calumet-County-496584541.html
2nd video in link shows a fly by.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Unless the people were storing explosives in their house it was a gas leak, can't think of anything else that can tear an entire house apart like that.   Stored gasoline or a boiler explosion would just take out one room.

Wonder if they had a new dryer or stove installed?  The last few of these I've heard about have been right after work like that was done.  I guess these days you've got to do your own leak checking after you have a new appliance installed, brush soapy water on all the fittings and look for bubbles.  And do it for a few days, a fitting that wasn't tightened all the way might loosen up if it's on something that vibrates like a dryer.

I've thought about changing out my electric stove for a gas one, my folks house had a gas stove and it is nicer to cook with, but I've gotten so used to using the glass cook top as extra counter space I don't want to give that up.  And the glass cook top has pretty good temperature control, not quite as fine as gas but much better than a bare coil type range.

[wihogfan]

I have a natural gas furnace and water heater. This is probably a good reminder for me to replace my 2 natural gas detectors (1 in the basement with the furnace and water heater and 1 at the top of the stairs) as well as my smoke alarms (natural gas detectors kind of look like smoke detectors but detect carbon monoxide and explosive gases- both smoke detectors and gas detectors have limited life spans).