(((I'm not there in Austin, but that doesn't make me happier about it.)))
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/05/16/0516storms.html
Link: Day reveals storms' wrath.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Austin spent Thursday mopping up Mother Nature's mess. (((Wrong lede: "Austin spent Thursday morning mopping up from climate change.")))
The powerful thunderstorms that shot through Central Texas on Wednesday night left behind snapped trees, broken glass, mashed cars, hail-beaten roofs and candle-lit houses. At the peak of the tempestuous weather, 40,000 Austinites lost power.
On Thursday, the City of Austin opened a shelter in East Austin for people without power. Some local schools cancelled classes. Broken trees clogged roads. Police officers directed cars through the dozen-plus intersections without traffic lights.
And, of course, people cleaned up.
"It's a mess," said Austin resident Brenda Davis, who spent the morning cutting limbs and hauling them to the front yard of her 12th Street house.
"M-E-S-S, mess."
(...)
The National Weather Service reported hail as large as four inches in diameter a few miles north of downtown Austin, service forecaster Pat McDonald said. Rose added that it may be a record size for hail that landed inside city limits.
(((Gosh, even bigger than the hail that hit my Austin roof this spring:)))
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brucesterling/2387632360/
(((I eventually used those rocks to cool drinks for guests out on the porch.)))
National Weather Service officials say they don't think a tornado touched down in the city. They point to radar images of the storm, which indicated it was a super cell with punching winds that blasted a wide area stretching about from Lake Austin to East Austin and 35th Street to just south of the Colorado River.
But insurance adjusters and a professional storm tracker say some of the tree damage suggests the presence of a tornado that dangled across the treetops for some distance but never touched down.
"If you look at the epicenter of the storm track, the way the trees are topped, twisted off rather than blown, that indicates a tornado rather than straight or sheer winds, or a microburst," said Mark Nelson, a meteorologist and consultant who surveyed and photographed damage in Central Austin on Thursday....
