Cheez! Where are you, up in the Panhandle?

This polar vortex came at the right time.

This post was edited by DMForcier on Tue, Jul 15, 14 at 22:24

Ha, I'm 250 miles south of you in the Highland Lakes area. Temps hit 68 during the storm, 69 right now. More rain and coolness coming the next couple days. I'm picking everything that's close to ripe as they'll be flowering again the next few days.

Over here in Bastrop County, we got seven drops. The cloud cover did keep it cooler so I could clean out the 'mater patch which was through.
Gettin' a load of Ghosts, Lemon Drops, and Corno Di Toros.
Life is hot...

I just checked the rain gauge and it was less than an inch, but I'll take it. At least the rain barrels are full again.

They had flood warnings up in San Saba so the lakes will get a bit of relief. Too many times lately the storms have been farther east on into your area, not helping the lakes much at all.

C'mon El Nino!

58 up here in SE Michigan, barely hit 70 yesterday. Polar Vortex is a term we never want to hear uo here again. Snowiest winter in Detroit History with a nlow one day of -15. This is one of the coolest summers I can remember. great sleeping weather though

mecdave,
Love the rain but hate the lightning. Had a nearby strike here about a month ago that came in on the gas line, blew the pilot light out on the WH, blew the control board on the stove, fried a PCI socket in my desktop, a Hughesnet modem, a DirecTV Genie box, a DVD, and a low voltage lighting system. Got a board for the stove and it's working now, but I missed a lot of tomato processing.
Everything was on a surge protector too, except the stove. It's on one now...

There is a form of induced voltage called a ground surge that no surge protector will protect against. If your electrics are grounded at two different location - even only a few feet apart - a close strike will generate a voltage differential between the two ground and that can fry anything in the house.

This problem happens when e.g. someone drops a ground to a pipe instead of the grounding rod. Satellite and cable installers are famous culprits because they will drive their own grounding rod to avoid having to traverse to yours.

Check your power circuit grounds and any lines like cable to see where they are grounded.

Dennis

Interesting on the grounding Dennis. I had forgotten that. When I rewired my last house the inspector had me ground the water pipes to the electrical panel so they would have the same ground. He said it was a new regulation here in Oregon so he wasn't surprised I missed it. That was almost 20 years ago.

The cable companies putting their own grounding in doesn't surprise me, although I bet they don't sink two 8 foot rods into the ground, 6 feet apart and ground to them.

DM & Orekoc,
Yah, it's called "common ground." Learned the hard way. I've got three masts, Hughesnet, DirecTV, and the breaker box mast. Each have a ground rod. I've gotta tie all of these to the box rod with #6 copper. Lot of wasted hammer work on two of the rods...