While I will never complain about what has so far been a mild winter (even by Texas standards) it is weird as hell to have a spring/summer type of mega thunderstorm blow through in January.
The forecast for Friday was super doom and gloom. They were calling for straight line winds of up to 75mph, tornadoes, and lots of hail. The farm was along the southern most tip of the projected affected area so the forecasters went back and forth for days (and even the day OF) trying to decide if it would actually hit us or not, and when. I had extra shavings delivered, in case the horses had to stay in all day, and watched and waited. And waited. And waited.
By the time it finally formed and started marching across Texas, it was a couple hours later than they’d originally said. Every time I checked the weather app they’d changed their mind about whether or not it was going to continue to form far enough south to hit us. The storm was definitely just as nasty as they’d said, though. Some places were getting 70mph wind and golf ball size hail. Parts were dumping rain at a rate as much as 15″ per hour, but it was moving so fast that luckily no one really got too much. There were several areas of rotation that could be tornadic, and at one point one of them was pointing right at us. It was close to hurricane-like. We get a few storms like that per year, but never in JANUARY. So odd.
By 8 I could tell we were definitely going to get slammed, so I went out and gave everyone more hay, shut all the doors, and hunkered down inside. It hit around 9, and it hit very suddenly and violently. It sounded like a train was circling the house, the wind was howling so hard (50-60mph, they said later). The windows were rattling, the power was flickering, and I could hear things blowing around outside. The satellite went out and I lost the connection to the barn cameras, so the dog and I just sat and waited.
Luckily it WAS traveling really fast, so within 20 minutes it had passed over. I went out and checked on the horses, who seemed to have not even noticed. The rain had blown so hard that the entire aisle of the barn was soaking wet, but the horses and stalls were dry. Some of the ceiling insulation had blown out and I saw a lot of little scattered branches, but in the dark it was hard to tell much else. Since the horses and structures seemed to be fine, I went to bed.
The next morning the SO came and we walked the property checking for damage. Luckily the leaning power pole (that is slated to be fixed soon) hadn’t budged, and there was no major damage to any trees. Lots of little limbs down, and the bushes along the back of the house were blown completely over the fence, but considering the wind, it wasn’t bad at all. The letters from the dressage arena and my jumps were blown all over the damn place, though. My barrels were scattered across various ends of the pasture, blown up against the fence. But, thank goodness, that was all easily fixed.
We had everything sorted and cleaned up by Saturday afternoon, so no real harm done. That was a completely bonkers storm though, for this time of year. Hail and tornadoes in January?? And Dallas had all this same weather on Friday night, then SNOW on Saturday morning. What the heck? Luckily it wasn’t even all that cold down here, much less snowing… that would have made me exceedingly grumpy.
Global warming is nuts. Anyone else having crazy weather?
breedrideevent.com 
We got a skiff of snow on Saturday morning. I was hoping my snowy-winter-dreams would come true, but alas it was too warm to stick. Our foxhunt got canceled because the property we were going to hunt got like 6″ of snow! And that is barely 35 minutes from my house.
But like you, I’ve really been enjoying our mild winter. It was 66 when I rode on Thursday night around 7p!
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We got the tail end of that storm as it came east, but all we got was a ton of torrential rain and wind around midnight on Saturday. Then Sunday was beautiful and 70 for my lesson! Definitely not typical January weather in NC, but I am not complaining about riding in a t-shirt in January either LOL
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We had some vicious weather this weekend tho we lucked out and mostly got rain not much wind though an hour south of us (or less) got straightline wind damage and tornado damage. UGH. This weather is messed up this year. We have had a few cold days but not much really on the scheme of things. I dont remember having this much thunder and lightning last year in the WINTER. WTF
The other night the lightning woke me up i thought we had left a lignt on.
And if we dont get cold soon I hate to think what our bugs are going to be like this summer. UGH. it is 35 today but going to be 50 later and up to 68 later this week again. Freaking boomerang.
Glad you guys are okay and the horses were fine! That corgi in a carrier still might be the cutest thing ever!!
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Our botflies have yet to totally die.
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Exactly! WTF
Like i hate cold weather but i also hate summer weather in winter. Poor Remus is so hairy he almost dies when it is 70 degrees. UGH
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Overall our winter has been pretty mild, but we got some nasty weather on Friday. It started off with rain and 26 degrees, then a mix of ice pellets and rain which started to create slush, ice and overall slick conditions. I work for the county and the whole county shut down at 1:00 Friday afternoon. The roads got very slick, the wind picked up and our 9 degree weather was below zero with the windchill overnight Friday. The baby, the dogs and I camped out in the house all day Saturday. Yesterday I had to chisel ice off my vehicle, spread a ridiculous amount of salt on my driveway so I didn’t eat shit and then it started misting again (at 28 degrees) and the roads began to get icy. Most of the area schools are closed today. I’d like to ride, but my borrowed horse lives outdoors and I’m really worried about eating shit.
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We were supposed to have a crazy weekend, but most of it totally missed my area. Just some flooding in low lying areas, but otherwise just a lot of rain. I am soooooo ready for things to get cold and stay cold at this point. Dealing with the mud is really stating to drag on me.
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We had thunderstorms the past couple of days but nothing like you guys had! Yesterday was gorgeous with 70 degree temps and sunny but now it’s raining and suppose to rain all week before getting cold (high’s in the 40’s) next week. At this point I’ll take cold and dry b/c riding has become impossible with all the rain even though the temperatures have been comfortable.
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Does 14 straight days of precipitation count? We are close to record highs for the month and close to doubling our usual accumulation as well. The last 3 years the weather has been getting crazier every winter.
I am glad that everything turned out ok – the wind is what scares me. It seems like there is no right way to protect horses in that weather. I just read about a barn local-ish to me that collapsed under tornado force winds, killing or injuring all the horses inside. Many of the old barns in our area are not built to handle the increasingly violent weather.
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Up in the Great White North they predicted 11-17″ of snow on Saturday so we were all geared up for that. Instead we got about 1/4″ of ice followed by maybe 5″ of snow, which was kind of disappointing, and is actually worse because the roads are terrible and dangerous for longer than just snow that can be plowed.
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The same storm ended up hitting us on Saturday. Unsurprisingly the weather people were still wrong. We actually had 2 waves of it. One hit around 10AM with massive winds and a ton of rain. The 2nd wave was set to hit around 1PM, so no barn for me…. But it didn’t show up until closer to 7PM. Thanks weather guys. No hail here, just some branches down. But MAN, it is so odd this time of year. (memories showed that last year it snowed on the same day).
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Ugh, glad there wasn’t any major damage and you’re all safe!
We had crazy weather up here, but in the good sense. It was in the 60’s all weekend. I know it’s bad, but it was so nice!
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We got like 3″ of rain in 60 degree temps on Friday (not normal for January in MO haha) and then some icy/snowy/disgustingness on Saturday. Of course once all that melts on top of the rain, we’re gonna be knee deep in mud again for the extended future 😑 we haven’t had a good solid few days of below freezing temps since like November/early December, which is again, not normal! I really need it to freeze up solid for a few days so we can get some property stuff done without sinking the trucks up to their axles in mud 🤦♀️
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My only comment is 15” AN HOUR?!?! We get 6” for the YEAR! How do you people do it? Lol
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It was nuts how much moisture was in them! But it blew over so fast that even those areas under the heaviest rainfall didn’t get more than a few inches.
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I think storms like that are why I live where the air hurts my face for a good chunk of the year. Although we can get nasty storms in the summers too.
We are just stuck in the middle of an insane deep freeze after having the most mild of winters up till this point. Our low tomorrow is -37*C…..without windchill. lol.
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Goodness gracious that wind! The damage to the ceiling panels is nuts.
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I’m here in MO (St. Louis area) and yeah, Mother Nature has been on drugs here, too. Thursday was mild and at least 50 degrees. Friday and Saturday brought tons of rain, tornado sirens (I am sick and stayed right in my bed, I’ve gotten rather complacent unless it TRULY seems scary), thunderstorms, hail, etc. all followed by an absolutely pounding snowstorm starting Saturday afternoon. We got dumped on with massive wet flakes, taking everyone – including the roads people – by surprise. Think we got around 3-4″ total. And now it’s supposed to be 55 or 60 degrees tomorrow! Give me a break…
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In the DC/Northern Virginia area and we had 70 degree weather this weekend! And then by Friday it’ll be down around freezing. Weather is crazy and climate change is making it more so and I hate it all.
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Up here in southern Ontario we got the mother of all rainstorms on Saturday – it poured down like bullets all day long, and was filthy c-c-c-cold. Got a message from the stable that my horse had been brought in (they’re out 24/7) “because he was shivering”, and did he have a blanket? Oh boy … I was worried that perhaps he was sick, because he’s never needed a blanket in the nine years he’s been there. But it turned out that about a dozen horses had been found to be shivering, and one by one they were shuffled up to the grooming stalls to be dried off salon style – with a hair dryer. Some snorting and jumping around, but several hours later, all were reasonably ready to brave the outdoors again, and yes, I did have a blanket for him. Belly straps not quite long enough, but binder twine is our friend. ;O)
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Apart from the fires Aus just got blasted with similar crazy winds and hail storms. Someone save us.
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