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Best of - Inclement Weather

Let me tell you... I'm no fan of bad weather. Give me days and days of sunshine and 75 please.

Why I'd rather have weather like San Diego... because when it's bad weather, I have to be out in it shooting photos.

Be it wading through floodwaters (again), walking on ice or chasing tornados... all of which happened in 2008.

Jason Palmer/Times Record News
Ben Cooper, 6, wades through floodwaters at his grandmother's house on Wellington Lane Tuesday morning after an overnight thunderstorm brought flash flooding and nearly two feet of water through the neighborhood.

I really hoped I wouldn't have to be in this situation again... after the flooding on the East Side, Tanglewood and Wranglers Retreat in 2007... Something about wading nearly thigh deep in water that more resembles chocolate milk.

Sure enough... after the one in a 500 year thunderstorm that parked itself west of Burk and dropped between 8-13 inches of rain on the land, I get the call early in the morning that I need to head down to Wellington Lane for flooding photos.

By the time I got down there and started walking through the water, it had already dropped more than a foot from the high mark... it came and went in a hurry and did as much damage as it could.

The first house I came to had this kid walking around his front yard or driveway... I couldn't quite tell. I'm not sure if he really grasped the severity of the situation, but he was a nice kid.

Jason Palmer/Times Record News
A pedestrian uses an umbrella as she crosses 8th St. in downtown during a heavy rain shower that developed right over Wichita Falls.

Every now and again...with any change in the weather or rain storm.... the newspaper deems it necessary to have "weather art" to let everyone know the next day that it was cold or it rained.

Seldom do those situations produce great chances for photos... much less one that stands out from the nearly 3000 photos turned in to the paper last year.

Oddly enough... this time it did. I was in downtown during a sudden burst of heavy rain and I knew that if I waited at this spot, eventually somebody might cross the street in the shadows of the trees and make a good silhouette against the street behind it.

It actually worked better than I thought it would, with the faint coloring of the umbrella from the light behind her.

Jason Palmer/Times Record News
A stranded motorist walks down from his vehicle stuck on the highest bridge of the Falls Flyover interchange Thursday morning as a line of freezing rain and sleet coated Wichita Falls with ice in the early morning hours creating havoc all across the city.

These are the days that I dread the most working at the paper.... when it's stupid freezing cold and there is ice everywhere. Snow... that's okay, just cold... also okay.

But when there is a layer of ice around town and everybody is supposed to be staying inside... I'm outside. Driving. Looking for something to illustrate the danger... which also puts me in danger. Not a big fan of that at all.

But that's my job so I found myself out at the Falls Flyover (still a stupid name) which was shut down because several drivers in non-4x4 vehicles thought they were impervious to the ice and could make it up and over the bridge span. Umm... no you can't.

Jason Palmer/Times Record News
Multiple vortexes drop from the sky near Electra Monday afternoon as a severe thunderstorm rumbled across the area. Tornado warnings were sounded around the area as funnel clouds dipped from the rotating storm.

Then there was the time I decided it would be wise to chase after tornadic storm near Electra that had already spawned a could of warnings with confirmed tornados on the ground.

Actually... chased after is a bit misleading... the storm was moving east and I was going toward it FROM the east. I've never said I was the brighest pea in the pod.

But I figured that if there was going to be a major tornado hit Electra... I was going to be in position to capture it one way or another. I mean, I've seen the movie "Twister" at least 20 times so I am pretty much an expert in weather related things.

Actually, I know a heck of a lot more about weather than you'd think. See... I'm terrified of storms like that. Ever since I was a kid and taking shelter in the hallway under a mattress I've tried to learn as much as I can so that I can rationally explain what I'm seeing and not be afraid.

To tell you the truth... I did know exactly what I was seeing and had a plan to escape any harm... but I was scared to death. People who chase storms talk about this addiction to it after their first time. Let me tell you, I felt no such desire to purposefully go and see that again. Being a journalist, I know that it's my job to do so... just like seeing bad fires and murder scenes.

I look forward to testing my mettle again this year for the sake of the newspaper... but trust me, I'd be curled up in a ball in a bathtub if I weren't working.

Posted by Jason Palmer at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)