Frog Stranglin' Gully Washer

[Bird]

After 2 years of drought, during which time we occasionally got a little rain when others occasionally got much more, I guess it was our turn. So far, over 5 inches this afternoon and it ain't over yet. We've had some pretty strong winds along with the rain. I haven't seen any damage to my house or trees yet, but a number of limbs down from the cottonwood on the north side of us. When we do get a rain, it usually runs off our place real quick, but today . . . well, you can see for yourself. And you can see what the wind did to the table and chairs on the deck in the breezeway.

 

[JDGREEN4ME]

I've heard of "gully washers" before but I don't think I ever heard "frog stranglin" before! It sure looks like you got some rain thats for sure.

 

[KentT]

I've heard of "gully washers" before but I don't think I ever heard "frog stranglin" before! It sure looks like you got some rain thats for sure.

Twas a line from a comedy routine on an Andy Griffith comedy album...

"... and it rained, and it rained, and it weren't no ordinary rain -- it was a frog strangler..."

Can't remember the "song" for sure -- I think it was "Swan Lake" -- but I remember the line... it was on the same album as "What It Was Was Football..."

Funny, funny stuff and clean enough you'd let the kids and grandkids listen to it...

 

[Bird]

Kent, I remember hearing Andy's story about football, but don't remember the one about rain. However, it was long enough ago that maybe that's where I first heard it. It's an expression I've used and heard used for many years.

 

[KentT]

Kent, I remember hearing Andy's story about football, but don't remember the one about rain. However, it was long enough ago that maybe that's where I first heard it. It's an expression I've used and heard used for many years.

Bird, it could easily have just been "common usage" and it just stuck in my mind because I hadn't heard it before then... but it certainly stuck. If I could clear out all this "useless clutter" in there, I might be able to remember what I did yesterday or the day before...

 

[thcri]

Bird,

About three weeks ago I was in Abilene. It rained hard for about two hours and the city had water all over the place. They don't understand drainage there at all. They had the majority of the streets blocked off and you could not pass on them and no place for the water to go.

Later that day headed for Fort Worth and we must have followed the storm. We could only drive about 20 miles an hour as we could not see. There was semi's all over the place and jacked knifed. Them semi's don't have enough sense to slow down.

But it had to be about the hardest I have seen it rain in a long time.

murph

 

[texbaylea]

They promised us rain like that down here but I have not seen anything as yet. There is also a flood watch in place???? Oh well, we still have a few hours left in the day My mother who grew up here abouts always used "frog stranglin" and she was not a big TV watcher to get it from Andy Griffith nor did she listen to his albums.

Vernon

 

[Bird]

Kent, I certainly understand about the "useless clutter" since I have that problem myself.

Murph, I think we only got a couple of inches of rain from the one you saw.

And WOW! The power just went off and right back on. I have a UPS, but my monitor screen even went black for just a second or two; never seen that happen before. And we still have thunder, lightning, and a downpour. I just snapped those pictures during a momentary lull in the action. I think this will be the most rain we've seen in one day in the last 10 or 15 years; maybe longer.

 

[HomeBrew2]

After 2 years of drought ...

Excellent, you're lucky! We go in cycles of 5 (maybe 7) yrs drought, 1 (maybe 2) yrs good rainfall. We're starting another drought cycle this year. ... but, we pay more for trouble here in Kaulifornia

 

[EddieWalker]

Bird,

The local news is all about how much rain you guys just got. I'm wondering about Alan and his new home. Hope it's all sealed in, as this one sure looks to be dumping a bunch of water really fast!!!

Just South of Denton, they are saying they got 8 inches this afternoon.

We're still dry, but the warnings are to be ready for 60mph winds, large hail and severe thunderstorms with 4 inches of rain being likely. We're also under a tornado warning.

I sure could use some of that water that's sitting in your yard. Both my ponds are low.

Glad you didn't suffer any damage,
Eddie

 

[texasjohn]

That stuff is just about to hit us right now... lightening and thunder and rain have just started... we are under a extremely severe storm warning.... something that has not happened for numerous years....promises tornados, 3 inch hail or better, many inches of rain, flooding, etc

We live on a hill.... so no flood worries... we're all carrying flashlights, have made plans for going to tornado shelter if need be, weather radios have fresh batteries, generator is freshly fueled...

The rain outside is now reaching frog strangler gully washer porportions, we'll see how long it lasts... gonna be a long night...

 

[Egon]

Good to see you came out realatively unscathed from the storm Bird. I hope others fared well also.

 

[jinman]

Well Bird, it looks like the kind of rain we got when our lake flooded finally came your way. We only got 1.1" here in Sunset with a little nickle-sized hail. Now, if you were really a stickler for a level lawn, you could map out the places you need to fill by the puddles of water.

I hope everything survived. Your deck furniture is at least in sight. My chairs like yours floated off and ended up stranded on an island in my lake.

I like how all your neighbors are standing out in their driveways, surveying the "damage" from all that water.

 

[mikim]

just got to work and haven't been out in operations area yet - but the worst of it is just now reaching Houston .. gonna be a bit busy around here today.

 

[RedRocker]

It was a little moist in Lewisville too!

 

[Bird]

I'm not sure just when it ended, since I went to bed shortly after 10 p.m., but this morning I poured another 1.65" of rain out of the gauge, so we got a total of abou 6.7" yesterday. I think the Denton airport only got 5.36", but I don't doubt some areas got 8". You can hardly see a puddle in our yard anymore; it soaks in and/or runs off pretty fast, although it does feel pretty soggy walking around in the yard. I'm just thankful that we didn't have the damage that a lot of places did. It's amazing how greatly the weather can vary within short distances. We're probably less than a mile south of the Denton city limits and the only damage I see so far around us is a lot of smaller limbs down from the huge cottonwood next door.

 

[EddieWalker]

It hit us just after midnight and pretty much raged off and on until 5am. Our rain guage has 3.10 inches in it, but Steph is conviced that we received more then that becasue the guage missed all the sideways rain.

She stayed up most of the night, I went to bed and slept through most of it.

Hope everybody is ok,
Eddie

 

[Bird]

Yeah, there was a fair amount of sideways rain, alright. It's going to be interesting to see how much this raised the levels of Lake Lewisville, Grapevine Lake, and Ray Roberts Lake.

 

[texbaylea]

We caught a small part of it down here. I had 2.2 inches in the rain guage this morning. It came through in the middle of the night and we lost power briefly. No particular damage that I have seen, maybe some dead limbs down.

Vernon

 

[scott_vt]

Mornin Bird,
I just had to check out this "frog stranglin" thread ! Glad to hear that you guys are OK, but I dont dare tell Kathleen that there is frog stranglin goin on down in Texas ! She is a frog lover, in our Vt house we must have 200 frogs, stuffed, ceramic, plastic you name it weve got it ! It all started when we bought the place, we were walking around the house and towards the backside of the property we have a low area that is kind of a seasonal pond during the spring months. Well the frogs were making a real racket, so we had to go down to the water to investigate, all you could see were thousands of eyes lookin at us, but they completely shut up soon as they saw us ! Since that day, she is sold on frogs !