Larry Caldwell
Super Member
No comments about the dust storm in Lubbock? Did you guys all miss it?
Texas Heat!
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Didn't miss it Larry, but not a major event where I was, a couple of short news stories about it. Looked nasty and took some of their power our for a spell is all I heard.
60% chance of more rain tonight, seems things are improving at least in N Texas. According to the D/FW airport (where the official weather station for Dallas ft Worth is) our water deficit is at around 6"-8" for the year. hmmmm
We have "cricks" up here that flow into rivers. A creek is a disturbing squeek noise. Or a sore neck.
jinman
Rest in Peace
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Now isn't that funny. Down here a "crick" is what you get in your neck.:confused2:
The dust storms apparently are worse than I had heard thus far, here is a news story from Fox. Creepy... Wish I could have transferred the photo!!
U.S. - US
Texas Could See More Dust Storms as Record Drought Continues
Published October 22, 2011
| Associated Press
LUBBOCK, Texas The towering wall of billowing red dust roaring across the blue West Texas sky took Monroe Debusk back more than eight decades to the Dust Bowl years when he was growing up on his family's cotton farm.
The 90-year-old farmer looked out his window Monday and saw the sky darken as a rare 1.5-mile-tall, 250-mile-long dust cloud stretched across the rain-starved land and blotted out the sun.
"I didn't do anything -- just thought back to the way it used to be," Debusk said, recalling the massive dust storms that overwhelmed the region in the 1930s. "That's the way they were."
Meteorologists say people living on Texas' parched plains could see more dust storms as a record drought tightens its grip across the Southwest. At least six sandstorms hit Phoenix this summer, with the most powerful striking on July 5 and measuring a mile high. But experts say another Dust Bowl is unlikely thanks to modern irrigation and farming techniques aimed at holding soil in place.
Dust storms form when wind whips up loose soil. They aren't unusual in West Texas, although the size and speed of Monday's cloud was rare. Typically, the wall of dirt climbs to only about 1,000 feet in that area, not the 8,000 feet seen with the latest storm, experts said.
The wind picked up with a drop in pressure along the edge of a fast-moving cold front, a pattern that typically happens in the fall and winter, meteorologists said. When the cloud hit Lubbock, winds speeds reached 74 mph in some places and visibility was far less than a quarter of a mile.
The wind knocked down tree limbs, which fell on utility lines, knocking out power in parts of the city of about 210,000 people. Dust lingered in the air afterward, filling people's ears and nostrils and leaving grit in their teeth. A layer of dirt covered the pavement, cars and anything else left outside.
"The thing that is scary is this exact type of dust storm is the same type of dust storm from during the 30s," said Tom Gill, a geology professor at the University of Texas-El Paso who has studied dust storms for years.
Burle Pettit, 77, the former editor of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, said the storm was the worst he'd seen since moving to the city in 1960. He didn't realize the storm was coming and was driving to pick up dinner for himself and his wife when it hit. The dust was so thick he missed the turn for the restaurant "because I couldn't see the stupid building."
"I wasn't scared" while driving, he said. "I was concerned that some idiot would come flying from behind me because you could not see."
Once he arrived, walking the 10 feet from his car to the entrance was another ordeal. He still couldn't see anything, and dirt filled his eyes, nose and mouth.
In hindsight, "a wise person would have turned around but I was hungry," Pettit said, summing up the trip.
Gill believes dust storms could become more common as Texas' drought continues. The state just finished its driest 12 months ever and was blistered by triple-digit heat until early September. This year is on track to be the driest in Texas history, with the average rainfall in the first nine months about 25 percent less than in the same period in 1956, the previous driest year, when 11.23 inches fell.
Lubbock has had just 3.16 inches of rain since Jan. 1.
"If the drought continues, and if we have powerful cold fronts barreling down the South Plains, I see no reason it couldn't happen again," Gill said.
But experts believe an extended period of massive dust storms like those seen in the 1930s remains unlikely. A drought in the 1950s didn't result in any large dust storms, likely because of advances in agriculture and conservation, they said.
Farmers in eight Great Plains states now irrigate their land with water from the underground Ogallala Aquifer, so even with little rain, the soil has some moisture. Texas farmers also "sandfight" in an effort to keep soil from taking flight. A fine layer of silt forms on top of the ground as it dries out after a heavy rain. To keep it in place, farmers poke small holes in the dirt, creating small mounds, almost like ant hills, that create resistance as wind moves across the surface.
"That's really all you can do to it because any time you touch it you're breaking up the existing clod (of dirt)," said Kelly Attebury, a soil scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service. Loose dirt is more likely to be lifted and carried by the wind.
But two other farming techniques that help limit dust storms aren't much of an option this year. Typically, farmers leave plants in fields after the harvest to help hold the soil in place. They also plant other crops, called cover crops, after the harvest to give the soil something to hang onto in late fall and winter. This year, there are few plants to leave in fields after farmers abandoned to the drought the cotton that's one of the region's major crops. And, there's been no rain to grow cover crops.
Shawn Wade, a spokesman for a group of cotton producers in the region, said the lack of ground cover could have contributed to Monday's storm.
"Certainly, it had some impact on the end result," he said.
There's also concern that other advances since the Dust Bowl could be in jeopardy. Water in the Ogallala Aquifer has been diminishing for years, causing worry in Kansas, Nebraska and other states that rely on it. And, funding for the federal Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers to keep land at high risk of erosion out of production, is in jeopardy as Congress looks to cut costs.
Still, Wade said he doesn't expect big cuts to the conservation reserve program.
"The program has proven to be very successful in reducing soil erosion throughout the High Plains of Texas and the Great Plains," he said, "and this week's happening shows how important these types of programs are when conditions such as the current drought set in."
Read more: Texas Could See More Dust Storms As Record Drought Continues | Fox News
U.S. - US
Texas Could See More Dust Storms as Record Drought Continues
Published October 22, 2011
| Associated Press
LUBBOCK, Texas The towering wall of billowing red dust roaring across the blue West Texas sky took Monroe Debusk back more than eight decades to the Dust Bowl years when he was growing up on his family's cotton farm.
The 90-year-old farmer looked out his window Monday and saw the sky darken as a rare 1.5-mile-tall, 250-mile-long dust cloud stretched across the rain-starved land and blotted out the sun.
"I didn't do anything -- just thought back to the way it used to be," Debusk said, recalling the massive dust storms that overwhelmed the region in the 1930s. "That's the way they were."
Meteorologists say people living on Texas' parched plains could see more dust storms as a record drought tightens its grip across the Southwest. At least six sandstorms hit Phoenix this summer, with the most powerful striking on July 5 and measuring a mile high. But experts say another Dust Bowl is unlikely thanks to modern irrigation and farming techniques aimed at holding soil in place.
Dust storms form when wind whips up loose soil. They aren't unusual in West Texas, although the size and speed of Monday's cloud was rare. Typically, the wall of dirt climbs to only about 1,000 feet in that area, not the 8,000 feet seen with the latest storm, experts said.
The wind picked up with a drop in pressure along the edge of a fast-moving cold front, a pattern that typically happens in the fall and winter, meteorologists said. When the cloud hit Lubbock, winds speeds reached 74 mph in some places and visibility was far less than a quarter of a mile.
The wind knocked down tree limbs, which fell on utility lines, knocking out power in parts of the city of about 210,000 people. Dust lingered in the air afterward, filling people's ears and nostrils and leaving grit in their teeth. A layer of dirt covered the pavement, cars and anything else left outside.
"The thing that is scary is this exact type of dust storm is the same type of dust storm from during the 30s," said Tom Gill, a geology professor at the University of Texas-El Paso who has studied dust storms for years.
Burle Pettit, 77, the former editor of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, said the storm was the worst he'd seen since moving to the city in 1960. He didn't realize the storm was coming and was driving to pick up dinner for himself and his wife when it hit. The dust was so thick he missed the turn for the restaurant "because I couldn't see the stupid building."
"I wasn't scared" while driving, he said. "I was concerned that some idiot would come flying from behind me because you could not see."
Once he arrived, walking the 10 feet from his car to the entrance was another ordeal. He still couldn't see anything, and dirt filled his eyes, nose and mouth.
In hindsight, "a wise person would have turned around but I was hungry," Pettit said, summing up the trip.
Gill believes dust storms could become more common as Texas' drought continues. The state just finished its driest 12 months ever and was blistered by triple-digit heat until early September. This year is on track to be the driest in Texas history, with the average rainfall in the first nine months about 25 percent less than in the same period in 1956, the previous driest year, when 11.23 inches fell.
Lubbock has had just 3.16 inches of rain since Jan. 1.
"If the drought continues, and if we have powerful cold fronts barreling down the South Plains, I see no reason it couldn't happen again," Gill said.
But experts believe an extended period of massive dust storms like those seen in the 1930s remains unlikely. A drought in the 1950s didn't result in any large dust storms, likely because of advances in agriculture and conservation, they said.
Farmers in eight Great Plains states now irrigate their land with water from the underground Ogallala Aquifer, so even with little rain, the soil has some moisture. Texas farmers also "sandfight" in an effort to keep soil from taking flight. A fine layer of silt forms on top of the ground as it dries out after a heavy rain. To keep it in place, farmers poke small holes in the dirt, creating small mounds, almost like ant hills, that create resistance as wind moves across the surface.
"That's really all you can do to it because any time you touch it you're breaking up the existing clod (of dirt)," said Kelly Attebury, a soil scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service. Loose dirt is more likely to be lifted and carried by the wind.
But two other farming techniques that help limit dust storms aren't much of an option this year. Typically, farmers leave plants in fields after the harvest to help hold the soil in place. They also plant other crops, called cover crops, after the harvest to give the soil something to hang onto in late fall and winter. This year, there are few plants to leave in fields after farmers abandoned to the drought the cotton that's one of the region's major crops. And, there's been no rain to grow cover crops.
Shawn Wade, a spokesman for a group of cotton producers in the region, said the lack of ground cover could have contributed to Monday's storm.
"Certainly, it had some impact on the end result," he said.
There's also concern that other advances since the Dust Bowl could be in jeopardy. Water in the Ogallala Aquifer has been diminishing for years, causing worry in Kansas, Nebraska and other states that rely on it. And, funding for the federal Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers to keep land at high risk of erosion out of production, is in jeopardy as Congress looks to cut costs.
Still, Wade said he doesn't expect big cuts to the conservation reserve program.
"The program has proven to be very successful in reducing soil erosion throughout the High Plains of Texas and the Great Plains," he said, "and this week's happening shows how important these types of programs are when conditions such as the current drought set in."
Read more: Texas Could See More Dust Storms As Record Drought Continues | Fox News
bindian
Super Member
Jim,
That is what I was going to say.
Getting a creek in you neck sounds too funny.Ron,
You have to go to deep East Texas before you hear someone call them cricks.
hugs, Brandi
RobertN
Super Member
Interesting. So it has an aux pump instead of pto or midship. Our first out engines have midship 1250gpm pumps, and a Kubota powered aux pump for the bumper line(pump and roll).
It'll be nice to have 1500gal for initial attack, especially if you have to wait for water tenders. The primary volunteer engine I am on is only 500gal.
Can you post some more pictures?
Hard to see from the glare, but this is a 3000gal tender with midship pump that I am training on. The engine in the background is an '89 Ford; our second out/volunteer engine.
It'll be nice to have 1500gal for initial attack, especially if you have to wait for water tenders. The primary volunteer engine I am on is only 500gal.
Can you post some more pictures?
Hard to see from the glare, but this is a 3000gal tender with midship pump that I am training on. The engine in the background is an '89 Ford; our second out/volunteer engine.
Attachments
NativeSon
Veteran Member
On a recent doctor visit my Doctor(a Home Town Boy) refered to the neck pain that I had as a "Crick in the neck". I knew what he meant, but it is kinda funny.
Charlie
txdon
Super Star Member
Robert, I think we are doing ok with no hydrants and a $2,000.00 yearly county budget. This is a bare minimum department. We found some more grant monies for personal PPE for wild land fires but we still have to share the structural PPE. We also got some older air pacs donated by a VFD in another county. We have two water tenders in the county in the two towns about 15 miles from us. This is so different than the 7 minute response time with unlimited water supply that I was used to. The new truck has increased moral and we got a a better response to fires.
Bird
Rest in Peace
You're sure right, Dennis.:laughing: I was in bed asleep by the time you posted this, but awoke about 1:30 a.m. to a spectacular thunder & lightning show. Then about 1:40 a.m. Oncor turned off our electric power for 4 hours.
I guess they wanted us to get the best view of the lightning show.I don't think we had any wind or hail, but my rain gauge did have about 0.46" in it this morning.
blueriver
Super Member
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Time frame was a little different ... we had strong winds come thru at 10 p.m. ... don't know when and how long the power went off (the clock was flashing) that was at 3 a.m. ... maybe I slept thru a second round. My gauge shows an inch and 4/10ths.
jinman
Rest in Peace
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2001
- Messages
- 21,059
- Location
- Texas - Wise County - Sunset
- Tractor
- NHTC45D, NH LB75B, Ford Jubilee
Dennis, we got 1/10 of an inch with no wind, lightning, or rumbles; just a nice shower.
. . . and speaking of "crick." Isn't "crick-crick" the sound a Chinese guy's pistol makes when he cocks the hammer?:laughing:
I guess you guy's dodged a bullet! nice to get rain with out the "extras". I was pretty sure it would barely hit me and we didn't get a drop.
Blue river, my brother moved a month ago to his in-laws farm outside of Ft Towson, so he may have got the same treatment as you, I haven't spoken to him this morning yet.
blueriver
Super Member
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- Messages
- 5,012
- Location
- S.E.Oklahoma
- Tractor
- JD 5520 Montana 4340 Farmall Super A Montana 5720C
He's about an hr and 15 east of me ... be nice to know how he faired.
RobertN
Super Member
I think it is awesome I'll bet it was great for moral!
In our area, it really is a mix of area's with lots of water, to area's of no water. Even here at my house, on the edge of the district, there is no hydrant... We have a hard time right now, because we do not have enough qualified drivers for the tenders. Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks I will finish my driver training to get the endorsement on my license.
It is interesting to see apparatus from different parts of the country, and hear the different SOP's.
I'll bet it was great for moral!In our area, it really is a mix of area's with lots of water, to area's of no water. Even here at my house, on the edge of the district, there is no hydrant... We have a hard time right now, because we do not have enough qualified drivers for the tenders. Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks I will finish my driver training to get the endorsement on my license.
It is interesting to see apparatus from different parts of the country, and hear the different SOP's.
JESSE1
Veteran Member
We probably got over an inch of rain early this morning. Doubled the level of my ponds (tanks), still very, very low. Looks like it's going to take another couple of heavy rains before they come back up. We're about 18" below normal on rainfall. They're predicting thunderstorms for Wednesday night.
We were camping out in the back yard last night. My family and four others. Five tents, a good fire, some hot dogs and marshmallows. Might even have been some guitar pickin going on.
We were really enjoying the lightening show when the sideways waterfall hit. In a matter of seconds five tents were down, one fire was out, and twenty-two people made it up to the back porch.
We slept inside.
We were really enjoying the lightening show when the sideways waterfall hit. In a matter of seconds five tents were down, one fire was out, and twenty-two people made it up to the back porch.
We slept inside.
He said they had allot of wind, no hail and he wasn't sure how much rain, but thought it was about an inch (in a dog bowl):laughing:
Now that's funny right there and good thing no one got hurt. I've had fishing trips like that, that just put the fizzle in the trip, but on hunting trips it is weird, the worse the weather the "tougher" you are:laughing:
70% chance Wednesday...for now
txdon
Super Star Member
I'm half way through with cleaning out the dry tank/pond. So far it has taken 30 gallons of diesel. I'm over the hood in mud, but it is holding like stiff jello.
I'd better get a move on it, rain will put another 20 year delay on this project.
I think I'm getting about 2' deeper than it has ever been, looking at the soil coloration lines.
I'd better get a move on it, rain will put another 20 year delay on this project.
I think I'm getting about 2' deeper than it has ever been, looking at the soil coloration lines.
