Crazy Texas Weather

Tonight we had an interesting experience with the Texas weather. We were on our way home from a little concert we went to at a little coffee house about 20 minutes from Waco as we had our first experience driving through a Texas storm. In Indiana, it will storm, but more often than not, you have a nice gentle rain. In Texas, when it rains, it pours. And pours. And pours. It's the kind of rain where you have your wipers turned on high and it still doesn't do a whole lot of good. We encountered this for the last 2/3 of the drive home. Of course, you drive slower, but the longer it goes like that, the more the water accumulates on the roads. Even on the interstate, you drove through substantial puddles.

When we got off the interstate at our exit, we were forced into a parking lot on the side of the road, as the intersection we had to drive through was not just flooded, but was a raging river. While we sat in the parking lot, we saw at least 3 cars washed to the side of the road. We waited about 10-15 minutes in the parking lot, as our street was a one-way street and the intersecting road was worse than our one way street. While we waited, it had stopped raining where we were at, and so the sewers were able to play a little catch up. Eventually, it was drained enough that we could drive through it. It was still probably 4-6 inches of water, but it was much better than the 12-18 inches that had been there 10 minutes previously.

As we continued home, we drove through a few more substantial puddles. There was one in particular that when we went into it, I had a gut wrenching moment because it felt like it could be a doozy. However, it was manageable and we were able to make it through safely.

What happened tonight would be considered a "100-year rain" in Indiana, as in, it only rains like this once every hundred years. This year, however, we've had 3 or 4 rains like this in Waco. Luckily, there has not been a need to drive through it until tonight.

I think ultimately, it's just a crazy summer for weather here in Texas. It's mid-July and we have yet to hit 100 degrees. We're also probably 30-35" of precipitation above normal for the year. Last year when we moved down here, temperatures were consistently around 105 and there had not been any notable rain since May. My what a difference a year makes.