Named storms

Something's coming on shore now that's been dignified with the name "Bill."  If you look at this Wind Map, it suggests a dramatic event over our heads (we're just about directly south of the left-hand edge of the "H" in "Houston"), but actually so far it's a bust even as far as rain goes.  The west side of a tropical pattern is usually the dry side, but maybe it will dump something more on us later as it pulls northwest through Texas.  It seems that North Texas and Oklahoma are in for another drenching, and it will be quite wet all the way up the Gulf Coast to the east of us.

Much as we would love to see another hard rain fill the pond all the rest of the way up, we can't complain about this year's extraordinary rainfall total to date, which is as much as we might expect in an entire ordinary year, around 30 inches.  Our rainwater cistern has been topped off for months; lakes and aquifers are being replenished all over the state.  But it's a good time to take rising rivers very seriously.

Update:  OK, not that much yesterday, but we've had 5.5 inches of rain today with power outages.  Now that's more like it!