Texas Weather Events
  This page was born 6/15/2001.  Rickubis designed it.  (such as it is.)  Updated 03/21/2023  
  Text and images on this page ©2001-2023  Richard Dashnau

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I'll collect unusual weather conditions or events here.

12/25/2022  These are images of a den in 40Acre Lake from 2022. They don't show much, but this was December, after all. Since I'm usually in this area about 8am, and I'm facing West
for the picture, my shadow is long and dark; and if I'm not careful, it can fall across the den. Temperature when I got of out my car was 37°F (15 minutes earlier), so I didn't expect to see
the alligator (if it was in the den); but hoped to see its nose exposed for breathing. But it would hide if my shadow crossed the the den. 
    

The images here don't give a full picture of conditions at Brazos Bend State Park on that day. It will take me a while to format everything that I observed and captured that day and I hope 
show some of that somewhere on one of my pages (this is a reminder for me). But the images below will give some idea. All of them were taken close to 8:30am that day. Note that the water
in the den opening was...water. But all around it, the water was frozen. The first two images below show the rest of 40Acre lake. The third image shows the West end of Pilant Lake, on the
North Side of the trail (40Acre Lake is South of the trail at this point.)
  

This shows a wide view of that entire area with the surface all frozen!

Closer to the Observation Tower (East of above), ice covered almost all of Pilant Lake. But I noticed something at the far edge of the water--about 800 yards away.
I needed optical magnification to see what was going on, and the images below show what I saw. The fourth image shows ducks standing on the ice.
   

A huge group of birds was floating in the remaining unfrozen edge of the lake.  If this seems odd (considering the cold), then remember that the ice is at or below
freezing (37°F, 0°C), but the water is warmer than that. I wonder if that crowd of birds soaking their feet and legs in the water also had any effect on the water and
helped keep it above freezing. Whatever the reason, the birds were there. So, with ice all around, the water in the den remained liquid. This could be because the
den was excavated into a bank that had good exposure to the sun. The den entrance-and the bank-gets direct sunlight. Direct radiation can heat the den, while it
can also be warmed by residual heat from the warmed dirt in the bank.  There was a lot more to see that day (another reminder for me to put it together).
   


07/03/2022  From Brazos Bend State Park mostly on 07/03/2022   I'm posting this in November, after we've gotten rain. I'm using this update to record some changes in Pilant Lake
starting from February 2022, up to 7/3/2022--which is when I witnessed the alligator demonstration. Let's go.
The picture below shows Pilant Lake on 2/6/2022. Point of view is a few hundred yards West of the Observation Tower.


The pictures below shows Pilant Lake on 6/5/2022. At this time, a lot of the water had left the lake. The channel running from the left was partially from the flow of water draining to the lower
area, and partially from alligator traffic. The second picture clearly shows the drag marks and footprints of at least one gator. The third picture was taken later in the day, after the activity
that was going on in the background of the first two images, and the gators left the lake.  The long image below those two shows what was visible in the background of the two images.  
I've already described what was going on back there on one of my other web pages.

 



The first two pictures below are from a week later, 06/12/2022.  This is about halfway down the Spillway Trail, West of the Observation Tower. The area to the North, usually submerged was
getting growth, while the remaining aquatic life was in the water near the trail.  The second two pictures show Pilant Lake on 6/19/2022.  There's water there in mid-June, but it continued to
go away.  The  surface of the water was bare, and there were few alligators visible. There were some birds foraging on the mud flat in the center, mostly Roseate Spoonbills. The Spoonbills
were there because many had hatched on the West end of Pilant Lake.  
   

Now--we are at July 3, 2022. Over the course of the year (I'm writing this in November) we watched the lakes shrink until mid August.  Many people asked what the alligators do when they
lose a lake, or where they go when they leave a dry lake.  Trenches were visible when things were totally dry--but by they hadn't gotten that bad this week. The North side of the Spillway Trail
had some water remaining near the Spillway Bridge, but it turned into a morass of muck as one moved East.  The two images below show the low water about halfway down the trail.
 
  
                     
There were still a few alligators along that length, but some of them were not friendly to each other. I followed one that had been chased East.  It moved  through the deep muck, pushing a blob of
water and mud in front of it.  There is also video of this interesting movement at this link.
  

It moved by using a walking/sliding gait.  Occasionally it lifted a leg out of the mud to take a step. It continued walking at a "trot", with rear leg on one side and front leg on the other moving
forward for each step.
  

A young Gallinule and a White Ibis that had been foraging in the mud moved back as the alligator pushed by.  Even when apparently mired in a morass of mud; an alligator can still move fast
enough to grab prey if it is close enough.  The middle picture shows the blob of water that moved ahead of the alligator.  At first glance, it appeared to be a current or flow, but it was entirely
being pushed by the alligator.
  

The last two images show that the level of mud behind the gator was lower--demonstrating that it was the force pushing the liquid. The alligator made it to the far end of the trail, where there
was a deeper area in the corner where the Spillway Trail meets the Elm Lake Trail.   How many other alligators must have taken the same route, and formed that trench?
 

If it seems depressing to see the water levels dropping...well, it was. But these birds were also foraging in and around Pilant Lake on July 3rd, and that was fine; so I'm including the images
 here. There  are some short video clips that show their activities also, which can be seen here. When the mudflats formed from the shallow water, we had many Black-necked Stilts come in, and
some nested at the the lake. This is an adult with chicks.
   
  

We'd had many Roseate Spoonbills nesting in Pilant Lake this spring. By this time, the juveniles were large, but they still begged to be fed by adults. This Juvenile was with an adult on an
exposed mudflat island. The juvenile bobbed its head when approaching the adult, and if the adult stood still long enough, the youngster poked the end of its bill at the joint of the adult's
bill. Sometimes, it was fed. 
   

This Green Heron was hunting in the water along the Spillway Trail. These three images show its feet sinking into the mud.  The mud had only been exposed a week or so, which is why it
was so soft.                                                           
  

01/02/2022 A cold front came through our area on the evening on January 1st, 2022.  The forecast said that temperatures would be somewhere in the 30's F (or about 40� colder
than the day before). I went out to BBSP again on 01/02/2022 mostly for two reasons.  First, I'd seen Bald Eagles out there (or the same one more than once)  the day before. One of my
 "working theories" is that our favorite winter predators (Eagles and Otters) would be more active on cold mornings because they're require more food for fuel.
Second, I wondered what the pod of baby alligators would do in the cold, and I also wondered how much the air temperature would differ from the temperature of the water. So, I
went out. In spite of the cold, and wind, it turned out to be an interesting day.

    
Finally, a few more comments about the wind.  For a while, it was powerful, and with the air below 40�F, it was quite chilly out there.  When I'd first reached Elm Lake, the temperature
 difference between the air and the warmer water allowed mist to form and move gracefully with the wind, and I tried to capture that on film.  Most of the birds had sought shelter, and
were clustered in various places of cover along Pilant and 40 Acre lakes.   They were looking for still air. I saw a flock of birds in a tree and all the birds were facing into the wind.
Anyone interested in hearing what that wind sounded like, I've got a short video here.  I went in to the Nature Center and work a shift.

02/14/2021 - 02/20/2021 and after... The world has been dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 virus for a year.  This week, a Polar cold front swept through the entire
state of Texas, causing temperatures to go below freezing for about a week...and below 15 degrees for the first few days.  Apparently the networks that deliver electrical power
to the entire state were not prepared for such cold--and a large percentage of them crashed, causing blackouts through most of the state (these events are well-documented elsewhere-
that was just a summary of the background.)  Now, here's how it afftected ME.  In brief:
1)  2/15/2021 (Monday)--Apartment power went off about 1:30 am.  It stayed off , through 2/16/2021 (Tuesday).
2)  2/17/21 (Wednesday) Power came on at 6am.  Power went off at 7:50am.  Power came on at 11:45am. Power went off at 1:00pm .  Power came on at 2:30pm.  Power went off 8:45pm. Power
 on at 10:49pm--and stayed on.
3)  2/18/21 (Thursday). Although power was on, city water was not, and apartment heat was still off. Heat came back on at about 4pm.  
For those first few days, Houston was very, very different.  NO sounds at all. No traffic because ice had closed the roads. No heat. No light at night except for alternate sources.

The images below show what it was like for me and Piper, my dog.  At sunrise on the 15th, we went out as usual (boy, was it COLD).  Our footprints were the first in the snow on most sidewalks.
Piper seemed unimpressed.
       
The images below show what it was like for me and Piper, my dog.  At sunrise on the 15th, we went out as usual (boy, was it COLD).  Our footprints were the first in the snow on most sidewalks.
Piper seemed unimpressed. Back inside, I used my Coleman stove to heat food. Since there was no power in the area, my cellphone service was mostly gone, too--no data for sure. But, I had a
very small television that ran off batteries. So, I could at least watch news on a few channels to see what was going on outside. Later, I hung my dissected Luci light in the kitchen for better light.
I listened to music on mp3 players, read books, and that's about it. I ran my car for an hour each day to allow it to warm a bit. I used that time to charge any devices that had low power.
       

At sunrise on the 16th, we went out as usual (boy, was it STILL COLD).  Air inside the apartment was about 40 degrees F. I had ice on my windows.
Piper remained unimpressed.
        

I used various battery-powered and solar-powered lights when needed. This was the Luci solar light.  
        

This is a quick demo of the lights I could use. Here's the video (mp4).   
    

08/25/2017 --  08/28/2017 and after... It is National news that Hurrcane Harvey hit Texas, and flooded Houston. Images and videos can be seen everywhere. But I live there, and this is my website;
so I'm posting some of my own material here. As I'm writing this-9/28/2017-Houston is recovering, but it will take years to come back. I was fortunate this time, but many people I know,
neighborhoods I know, and real estate that I know---were covered and damaged by water. Things are far from "normal" here.
So, like many others here, my place of employment closed early Friday, August 25th, to allow us to prepare for the arrival of Harvey. From the time I got home, through the next few days, I
watched the progress of the storm via our local news stations, and monitored via my phone.
8/25/2017 (Friday)--- 8/26/2017 (Saturday)
       
    Raining at 9pm                            Still Raining at 10pm                      and Still Raining at 11pm        and Raining at 12am next morning
I finally got too tired, so I went to bed. On waking up the next morning (Saturday), there was more rain...continuously falling.
8/26/2017 (Saturday)--
       
   Raining at 5:30am                            Still Raining at 7am                      and Still Raining at 10am    and Raining at 1:30pm that afternoon.
The local news stations had already begun issuing flash-flood warnings and high water alerts. The authorities all recommended that people
stay off the roads. I stayed in, and watched the news and my phone.  I did use the occasional break between rain bands to take the dog outside.
 8/26/2017 (Saturday)--
     
 Raining at 5:30pm                            Still Raining at 7pm                      and Still Raining at 9pm    and raining at 11:00pm that evening.
The local news stations had already begun issuing flash-flood warnings and high water alerts. The authorities all recommended that people
stay off the roads. I stayed in, and watched the news and my phone.  I did use the occasional break between rain bands to take the dog outside.
 8/27/2017 (Sunday)--
     
 Raining at 4:30am                            Still Raining at 12pm                      and Still Raining at 1pm    
Now into the third day and evening of rain. It just kept coming. But on the 27th, I went out to check on Buffalo Bayou, which flows by
about 1/2 mile away from me. When I got to the bridge that crosses the bayou, it was clear(though the water was at the top of the
bridge). But about 100 yards South, the road was covered by water. There was a van partially-submerged. And it was still raining.
I filmed some video as I turned and walked back to the bridge. Sound is bad because water got into the microphone, but it shows
the water up to the bridge as well.  The video is here.  I returned home, and stayed inside to watch the news as it showed Houston--the city
that is my home; and the surrounding area--being flooded.
8/27/2017 (Sunday)--
   
I went out to the same place again on the next day. The water level had lowered, leaving the van exposed. But the road beyond the van was still
flooded, and two more cars were trapped. As I type this now, I wonder if they'd been there all along, but had been totally submerged and hidden
from sight before.
8/28/2017 (Monday)--
   
One the next day (Tuesday) water level had lowered even more. While this was a good sign, there were other parts of Houston (and around
the area) where the water was still rising at this time. The ruined car remaining at that intersection was a minor example of the great
ruin that was revealed as the water receded.
8/29/2017 (Tuesday)--
   
On Wednesday, I rode my bicycle to my place of employment (about 30 minutes one way) because I wasn't sure of road conditions.
Luckily that property was also not damaged, so I returned to work on Thursday. However, large parts of the Houston Metro area
hadn't even begun to repair. The next weekend, (Sept. 2 and 3) I helped out at one of the local businesses--helping receive and organize
flood supplies (mostly cleaning chemicals). The employees of that business did the dispensing of the supplies. I worked there on the following
Saturday (Sept. 10) also.
   
                 Helping give out supplies Sept.2                                         Helping give out supplies Sept. 3
While I was working there, I could see the many faces of those who'd lost so much, coming to take what they could. While this was
was sad, I was uplifted by seeing the people who were helping. I met this group of people:

The two men in the second row, right were employees of the furniture store. But the rest of the group had arrived with 4 trucks full of donated items.
And...they had driven in from Phoenix, Arizona. They had "Hurricane Harvey Sustainable Landscape Services" on their T-shirts, and they have two web pages:
https://www.facebook.com/sustainablels/    https://www.sustainablelandscapeservices.com/contact.html

On the following two weekends, I helped an old friend to remove parts of her house to so flood-damaged walls could be repaired.m The house is some distance from the center
of Houston, and there are a lot of animals there. But even while dealing with this depressing situation, sometimes humor can be found. I offered to clean-up a shelter that was
inside one of her fenced pens. I'd set up a camera to record any interactions between me and the birds that lived in that enclosure while I was cleaning up the shelter. The birds
didn't pay much attention to me, but there was some amusement caught.  The video clip is here.  

Brazos Bend State Park was closed a few days before Harvey made landfall, and has been closed since. Due to flood damage, it is tentatively scheduled to open sometime in November, 2017.

There is no way that anyone could plan to deal with the amount of water that fell upon this part of Texas during those 4 days. Various areas got estimates between 24 and 50 inches of rain.  To clarify
that is 2 to 4 FEET OF RAIN...IN FOUR DAYS! According to the KTRK website, over 15,000 homes were destroyed, and over 200,000 homes were damaged in the city of Houston (in Harris County)
and surrounding counties during Hurricane Harvey.  

10/08/2017 I visited my friend and helped out a little more. Besides cleaning up some inside, I helped expand the Emu enclosure. Before I left for the day, I spent a few minutes with the emus, and shot
some short video clips. The two images below are frame grabs from one edited video. The video can be seen at this link.  While I was there, I shot some video focusing on the stride of one of the emus.
I filmed at 120 frames per second, and that video is at this link.

      

6/05/2016 Texas has been hit by rain and flooding multiple times this Spring. The last batch of showers in North Texas put a huge amount of water into various rivers--including the Brazos River.
 This pile of water made its way South, and BBSP was closed 5/28/2016 in preparation for the Brazos River to rise. And, the river did  rise, as this screengrab I got from the USGS site shows.
The river rose almost 10 feet above flood stage!  This is a major disaster, and it isn't over yet (as I write this 06/06/2016).  It's sad that BBSP was totally under water at this time LAST year.

   
On Sunday, 06/05/2016 I was able to ride with a friend in his plane over BBSP, and the surrounding area, for about 45 minutes-until the rain started. I shot the images below during the flight.
 By using the zoom function, I could get past the wing-but zooming too much caused too much camera shake. At the time I was above the park taking these pictures (about 2:30 PM) the
flood gauge at 1462 showed 52.44 ft.  The flood gauge is located near the bridge at the top of the "1462" image.

 

Pictures of Brazos Bend State Park ( it's possible to compare these to those I shot from the air last year). You can see the pictures from last year on my other page here.
  
              40 Acre Lake                                                                 40 Acre Lake                                                             40 Acre Lake                                              40 Acre Lake
  
      40 Acre Lake Observation Tower                   40 Acre,Horseshoe,Elm Lakes                               40 Acre,Pilant,Horseshoe,Elm Lakes                Old & New Horseshoe & Elm Lakes
   
      Old and New Horseshoe Lakes                         Elm Lake, Old and New Horseshoe Lakes           Elm Lake and Old Horseshoe Lake                                   Nature Center
   
   George Observatory & Creekfield Lake                          Sawmill Road                                                                Near Sawmill Road                             Hwy 1462 at the Brazos River

Pictures of areas around Brazos Bend State Park
   
   AREAS SOUTH OF 1462 AND EAST OF BBSP  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
   
  AREAS NORTH OF BBSP  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
     
               APPROACHING STORM                SIENNA STABLES, ABOUT 8 MI. NORTH OF BBSP    AREAS NORTH OF BBSP----------------------------------->

July 18, 2015 One of my co-workers has a small plane, and-since I'd expressed a desire to get some pictures of Brazos Bend State Park-invited me to fly over Texas 
for a few hours.  So, 3 of us went down to the coast, and back, and we took a few turns over the park. I was able to get a few pictures, and here they are. We were 
flying at 1500 feet, and I used camera zoom when I could.  This is about a month after the flood pictures I took in June (see below).

 
               Me, in the plane, above Texas

PICTURES OF BRAZOS BEND STATE PARK from above.

-----
 Elm, Old and New Horseshoe, 40 Acre Lakes                       40 Acre Lake                                           40 Acre Lake                                       40 Acre Lake

-----
                     40 Acre Lake                                    Elm Lake and 40 Acre Lake                     Elm, Old and New Horseshoe Lake          Old and New Horseshoe, Elm Lakes

-----    
               George Observatory                                     Maintenance Yard                             Old and New Horseshoe Lake                                Park Headquarters

PICTURES OF OTHER SPOTS

-----
    Highway 809 @ 332 near Sweeny                              Matagorda, Texas                       Mine Lake and East Reservoir at the Gulf    Brazos River at Brazosport High School

-----    
          Brazos River near Freeport                 Brazos River at Highways 2004 and 400          Brazos River at Clemens Reservoir

06/21/2015  Water has receded more from Brazos Bend State Park, leaving the roads and most of the trail clear. The river didn't rise as far and as fast as had been 
forecast. I was able to go out the the park for another guided tour. I took a few pictures as I went on the tour around 2 lakes.  40 Acre Lake had a lot of debris. This 
coming weekend will be the first in weeks that volunteers will be allowed to work in the park--assisting various cleanup duties. The park is still closed, and may be 
for another few weeks. Check the state park page, the state facebook page, and the volunteer website for more news.

-----
    40 Acre lake looking East  6/21/15                            40 Acre Lake near tower 06/21/2015                  Spillway Trail looking at Bridge 6/21/15           Spillway Bridge 06/21/2015
                                                                                              Gator resting on the trail in front.                                                                                                     Water level can be seen on top rails.
-----
 Spillway Trail just past bridge 6/21/15                Spillway Trail towards Elm Lake 06/21/2015          Pilant Slough Trail at Elm Lake 6/21/15     Water into 40Acre from Pilant Slough 06/21/2015
 Dead area shows water level. Stick=6 feet                                                                                                                                                                         Water flowing into the lake as water rose again.
--
 Birds Eating fish South 40Acre 6/21/15           Dead Fish South 40 Acre 06/21/2015         
 Dead fish probably killed by silt suspension in floodwaters. Many bass, perch, crappie, bluegill.

06/14/2015  Water has receded more from Brazos Bend State Park, leaving the roads and some of the trail clear--but many trails were still under water. I was able to go
out the the park for another guided tour. I took a few pictures. Some of them fit in with the large group of images below. These few show where the water had been.  In 
the picture of Big Creek, the green ends where the water had been. In the wood yard, the silt on the rope shows how high the water had been.
Since the 14th,  tropical storm Bill dumped a lot of water throughout Texas. As I write this (6/18/2015) they are forecasting that the Brazos River will rise to about 50' at 
the Rosharon gage sometime Saturday morning (6/20/2015). This will probably cause the park to be flooded again.  Tentative plans were for the park to reopen 6/22/15
--but if the water rises as predicted, it probably won't reopen until sometime in July. The graph below shows how the Brazos River height changed from May through July.  
--------------
 Big Creek between NC & Elm Lake 6/14/15           In the Wood Yard 06/14/2015                       Brazos River levels at Rosharon        

06/07/2015 Brazos Bend State park was closed for business on 05/27/2015. Lots of rain throughout Texas caused flash flooding in many areas, and eventually raised 
the water level in the Brazos River. The water level in the Brazos River raised to 51.4 feet at Rosharon gage--about 2 river miles downstream from the mouth of Big Creek.
 The high water caused backflow into Big Creek, which winds through the park. Big Creek overflowed, and pushed water into Pilant Slough, which also overflowed and 
filled the remainder of the park. Water levels in the park started going down sometime on 6/6/2015.  On 06/07/2015 park management allowed for a "guided tour" of the 
park for interested volunteers, so I was able to get pictures of my own.  Most of these are shown below. Note that these were taken AFTER water had started to recede.  
I went through my archive of older pictures, and tried to find images of earlier times that corresponded to those I shot while the park was under water. So the images are 
in sets, with the older image first, followed by the recent flooded image.  Some of the older images are screen grabs from "action camera" footage I filmed from my car.  
Park is still closed today (6/11/2015)

----
        40-Acre lake pier 2013                                  40-Acre lake pier 2013                             40-Acre lake pier 6/07/2015

---- 
          40-Acre lake pier 2013                            40-Acre lake pier 6/07/2015                        40-Acre Lake Pier 6/14/2015        

--
40-Acre Observation Tower 2013               40-Acre Observation Tower 6/07/2015      40-Acre Observation Tower 6/14/2015

----
  Mile Stretch at curves sign 2014                     Mile Stretch at curves sign 2015                  Mile Stretch at 2 signs 2014                        Mile Stretch at 2 signs 2015

--

    Mile Stretch at 30 mph sign 2014                   Mile Stretch at 30 mph sign 2015       
------- 
Mile Stretch; emergency parking sign 2014  Mile Stretch@Emergency pkg. sign 6/7/15    Mile Stretch@Emergency pkg. sign 6/14/15

----
    Mile Stretch at N72 sign 2014                        Mile Stretch at N72 sign 2015              Park Road towards campgrounds 2014      Park Road towards campgrounds 6/7/2015

----
    Park Road towards campgrounds 2014      Park Road towards campgrounds 6/7/2015 Park Road towards campgrounds 6/14/2015        Elm Lake Observation Platform 2011

 ----
    Elm Lake Observation Platform 2013           Elm Lake Observation Platform 2015         Leaving Elm Lake near 20mph sign 2014      Leaving Elm Lake near 20mph sign 2015

----------
Leaving Elm Lake 2014(Big Creek to left)      Leaving Elm Lake 6/4/15(Big Creek to left)  Leaving Elm Lake 6/14/15(Big Creek to left)   

--
Leaving Elm Lake 2014(Big Creek to left)     Leaving Elm Lake 2015(Big Creek to left)

06/25/2009-  Buddha and I were at the Danny Jackson Bark Park, when a storm appeared to the West, moving towards me and the park (moving East).  While I watched, I could see a lot
 of lightning. I had my pocket camera with me. This is a Casio EX-FC100. It can shoot high-speed video. I thought I'd try to catch some images of lightning with my camera. After a few tries
shooting bursts of photos (It's all luck. I had to point and shoot and hope I caught something in the 30 images.) I decided instead to try for video. The camera can shoot up to 1000 frames per
 second (fps). It can't shoot at this rate for long for one "burst". (More details on how this works are on my Slow Motion Video page.)  Also, the frame size of the video is short and long (and
rather small). Still, I decided to try. So, I just started filming, and panned across the buildings at a steady rate. I did this twice. I can't remember exactly how long I shot each time, but the camera
 won't allow more than about 30 seconds. I knew that I witnessed a few flashes while shooting, but couldn't be sure the camera saw them.

Although the camera shoots 1000 fps, captured frames are placed in a video file formatted to play back at 30 fps--which results in slow motion replay.  One second shot at 1000fps plays back 
at 30 fps, or 33.3 times slower.  Shooting 1 second at this rate results in 33 seconds of viewing time, and this increases in proportion. 10 seconds shot at 1000 fps will give 330 seconds of 
viewing time (or about 5 minutes)--and so on. That means that I had a lot of "dead" video to look through. With the right software, I can look at one frame at a time (which would take forever, 
ha ha) but each frame represents 1 thousandth of a second.  I reviewed the videos. I almost thought I didn't get anything, but finally found a few flashes. Even at 1000 fps, the lightning was very 
brief.  By using a number of video editing programs (Quicktime, Video Mach, Virtual Dub, Windows Movie Maker) I was able to resize the frame, and to slow down the action even more.
After resizing and slowing down the video, I captured frames from them. I did no other enhancements or alterations to the images. Today's RICKUBISCAM shows the view to the Southwest of my
position at the park. The storm is moving left to right in the following frames, and the lightning strikes are South of me as I pan across.  Below are the frame captures. This stuff doesn't feature 
Buddha specifically, but she was there when it happened.

   
FIRST BOLT STREAMS DOWN                                 BRIGHT PULSE!                               IONIZED AIR MAINTAINS GLOW


                       GLOW FADES

  
             ESTABLISHING SHOT BETWEEN                    STREAMERS FROM THE GROUND?                   2ND BOLT, CONNECTION!


       IONIZED PATH MAINTAINS.
The weird artifact near the ground in the second image seems to be generated by the camera--perhaps because of the brightness of the image at that point.

   
                                    GLOW FADES                       RETURN STREAMER STARTS FROM GROUND           2ND BOLT, SECOND CONNECTION!                 THIS MAINTAINS LONGER.

---
              3RDBOLT, PRIMARY STREAMERS                        3RD BOLT, CONNECTION!                        IONIZED PATH MAINTAINS           RETURN STREAMER STARTS FROM GROUND.
The weird artifact near the ground in the first image seems to be generated by the camera--perhaps because of the brightness of the image at that point.

- --
         3RD BOLT, SECOND CONNECTION!                      IONIZED PATH MAINTAINS                              GLOW FADES          -

Although these bolts are bright, they were quite far away, judging by how long it took for the thunder to reach me. At first glance, it's somewhat interesting that the primary and return strokes have 
exactly the same shape--but these all happened in fractions of a second--long before air movement could change the shape of the ionization path.  Lightning occurs when a high charge potential 
builds between two points (ground and air, or air to air). The current winds its way between these points until a primary connection is made. Then the energy rushes to equalize, but sometimes this
can flow one way, then the other until the charges dissipate. The rushing energy ionizes (charges) the air, making it conductive and causing it to glow. The surrounding air is rapidly heated and 
expands, causing thunder. I've edited a video from these clips. It can be seen here:  Lightning at Danny Jackson Bark Park 1000fps wmv 5.1mb

06/18/2006  I've recently made several references to the low water levels in the park. Here are a series of images of 40 Acre Lake, taken on 6/18/2006. These were shot from the North length of the
40-Acre Lake Trail, and were taken as I moved East to West, starting from the Hoots Hollow Trail.  -----------------------

-----------
                                       LOOKING EAST, FROM HOOT'S BENCH                                                        ABOUT HALFWAY BETWEEN BENCH AND OBSERVATION TOWER                                     

   
                             HALFWAY TO TOWER, LOOKING WEST. 

For comparison, you can look at the material I shot in December of 2005 from not far from the halfway point I show in the images above. Even in December, the water level was lower than it should
have been. You can look at this page, at the entry for December 4, 2005 to see some water in 40 Acre Lake, or look above that to the entry for November 28, 2004 to see what it looked like just 
before it got OVER filled and flooded.  If only that could happen now!

---
                                               AT THE OBSERVATION TOWER, LOOKING WEST.   

--
                        AT THE OBSERVATION TOWER, LOOKING SOUTH
I really hope that we can get a good rain soon. The Houston area has been getting rain through June, but not much of it has fallen on the park.

November 28, 2004 Today was certainly a NON-typical day at Brazos Bend State park. The Brazos River, and Big Creek-which meet at the Southeast end of the park-were both swollen with 
rainwater, and were much higher than usual. The Brazos River had breached its banks, and Big Creek was backflowing into the park via Pilant Slough, although it had already breached its banks
in some areas. I was on the trails in the morning, and it was a beautiful day.
---------------------------------------------
                                                                                                          ALLIGATOR WITH SKIN
However, the water slowly crept into the park. Here are some pictures I took as I walked the park, and also did a short riding patrol with Chuck and Sharon. I had scheduled two interpretive programs, 
or else I would have stayed out on the trails longer. The picture above shows an alligator that had come up onto the 40-Acre Lake trail (which hadn't flooded...yet) with a deerskin in its jaws (I said the 
alligator had a fur coat. I didn't say it was wearing it.) The skin had probably gotten washed into the water by the flooding, where the alligator had found it. The alligator moved back into the water and 
slowly swam off when I got closer.   Clicking on the images will show them larger.
--
       WITH SKIN, CLOSER                                                                 WATER FLOW AT 40 ACRE                                  40 ACRE HIGH WATER 

----
                     40 ACRE/PILANT BRIDGE                                              OBSERVATION TOWER
---
   ELM LAKE PICNIC AREA                                                              THAT'S BIG CREEK!                                                 HALE LAKE PAVILION 

-
       HALE LAKE FISHING PIER                                                     HALE LAKE PICNIC AREA
--
                        BLUESTEM TRAIL                                                  ISLE OF BAD INTENT                                              FLOATING BADNESS

--
                REALLY ANNOYED ANTS                                              FACING THE CAMPING LOOPS

As we went around Bluestem and Red Buckeyee trails, we encountered a number of floating ant mats. We stopped near one just long enough to get a few pictures (see  ISLE OF BAD 
INTENT, FLOATING BADNESS, and REALLY ANNOYED ANTS, above). These are floating islands made entirely of Fire Ants. This one was about 18 inches around. Here in Houston, 
mats of this type are a big problem when we have high water.   The flooded, displaced Fire Ants make a raft (or island) of their own bodies. They are very much alive, and will swarm onto 
anything they can that will get them out of the water. If they swarm onto something living, they "show their gratitude" by stinging the hell out of whatever they've climbed on. We moved on after
a few pictures so we wouldn't risk the ant mat lighting on our Kaboda, and from there onto us! 

--
                         CAMPING LOOP                                                        AWAY FROM THE RIVER                                          NEARING BIG CREEK               

--
                          NO CAMPFIRES TONIGHT                                   THAT'S BIG CREEK AGAIN
These pictures were all taken before 12:00 PM Sunday. It was an odd feeling to ride around in the partly sunny, calm weather and see all this water slowly rising.
The water was still rising Sunday evening. If anyone is interested in visiting the park this coming week,it would be a good idea to call the park first and check conditions there.  The last news
I got (today, December 1) is that most of the park was under water.

When Allison Hit Houston--Week of June 8, 2001
Through the week, various parts of Houston had been hit by rain, and some areas to the south of town had already received large amounts of rain. Then, on Friday evening, there were warnings
of a probable visit by tropical storm Allison. I went to a movie directly after work (I saw "Evolution").  This was at multiplex cinema on the west side of town. To understand this behavior, I suppose
 you'd have to live here for some time. While rain is not a threat every day, flash flood warnings are not uncommon whenever rain is mentioned here.
After the movie, I drove to a restaurant not far from downtown Houston. On the way, I hit fairly heavy rain. While I was in the restaurant, I happened to look up at one of the television sets that was
 playing-sometime around 9:00 pm-and saw a Doppler radar image very similar to what I show below (figure 1). 

----------------------------------- 
                                                                                 Figure 1.
I finished my meal, and drove home. On the way, I noticed that some of the streets started developing high water. I stayed on streets I was familiar with, and those I knew were higher--that is, that 
didn't dip under any overpasses, and so on. As I drove on, I notice water starting to rise, and tried to take some pictures with the digital camera I usually have with me.  Since I was still driving at 
the time, and the torrents of water made it difficult to see clearly, and the low light conditions; most of the pictures just didn't come out well. I made a detour near my apartment to go to an ATM. I 
found myself on a side street with alarmingly high water. I then drove home, and encountered more high water. On one of the main streets, the water was rising (figure 2). I got off these streets 
as soon as possible, and onto the lesser-traveled streets near my house. But, these weren't much better. (figure 3.) Click on the images to see them larger.

--------------------------------------------------------
                                    Figure 2                                                                                                            figure 3
              This intersection is about a mile from my house.                                  This intersection is about one block from my house.  This is the high spot
              It's hard to tell, but that's water, not road surface.                               in the road I'm on. That truck went in up over its headlights. So did I. 


When I got home,I logged on, and got the Doppler radar image shown in Figure 1. Not long after that,I grabbed my video camera and took some movie footage directly outside my apartment door.
Figure 4 (below)is an image from the video.Click hereto see the video clip.(flv video 2,519kb).
--------------------
              figure 4.(click image to enlarge)                                                 figure 5.

I was very fortunate during this week. Take a look at the rainfall map (click on figure 5). I've marked where I live. Note that the heavy rainfall is not that far from where I am. In some spots they recorded
over 30 inches of rain since  tuesday (June 5). The heavy rainfall hit close to downtown Houston, and on the other parts of town,  about 20-25 miles away from me.  Some of this occurred nearer the 
Gulf of Mexico and the Ship Channel--effectively "downstream" from where I am. Since they got so much water, though, the smaller amount  *I* received still caused flooding, since it had nowhere to go.
I didn't know any of this Saturday morning. I went about my business, and this was mostly on the west side of town. I didn't see any current news media until I turned on the TV Saturday evening. I *had* 
heard that the heavy rain had disrupted newspaper deliveries, so I hadn't seen a newspaper. Although I knew we'd had flooding (I'd even seen some of it), I had just assumed that the water had receded
much as it had done in my neighborhood.  Then, I received a huge shock when I turned on the TV. Every station was covering the disastrous flooding.  I don't know how much of this the rest of y'all saw 
on the news, but on the local stations it looked terrible.
The Houston Chronicle Online has a lot of coverage showing what happened this city that I call home. To those of you that have never been here, the pictures may not say  much. To me, they
are quite a shock.  To see the full story, go to their page covering the flood.
Click on the link to get there: The Great Flood of 2001.

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