Fast moving storms knock out power
Oct. 14—As a severe weatherfront swept through North Texas on Sunday night, thousands lost power due to high winds, with numerous areas of Henderson County affected.
National Weather Service Meteorologist Allison Prater said most of the havoc caused by the storm was caused by lightening and wind damage.
"Most of the rainfall reports were under an inch," she said. "Athens only got one-hundredth of an inch."
Prater said the front caused two tornado warnings in Ellis County before NWS placed Henderson County under a severe thunderstorm warning at 11:04 p.m.
When the front reached Athens, the NWS Coop observer at Athens Municipal Airport began recording wind gusts of more than 20 miles-per-hour.
Oncor Electric at one point reported 615 without power early Monday. Most had been restored by morning.By 7 a.m., Oncor reported Athens had two outages remaining, which affected seven customers.
Shortly after midnight, Trinity Valley Electric reported crews were working to respond to outages as the storms struck. By morning, just about all power had been restored, although some customers in the Arnold Hills Road area of Seven Points were reported without power for several hours. The outages there affected about 1,200 people at their peak.
Henderson County didn't get much help from the latest storms with the dry conditions that have kept the county under a burn ban for three weeks. The average was 624 on the 800 point scale and the driest area stood at 707. A reading of 800 means the soil is completely dry and it would take an eight inch rain to saturate it.
According to the COOP observer at Athens Municipal Airport, the rainfall total for October, which is usually one of the wettest months is only .31 inches. Temperatures have been trending several degrees above normal, with the high Saturday, of 90 degrees, 14.5 above the normal high.
Prater said the best chance of significant rainfall in Henderson County should come mid-week. There is an opportunity for 2 or more inches in the moisture starved western end of the county. For Athens, the forecast shows the possibility of a little more than an inch, while the southeast figures to get one-half inch.
"There will be a wide range of rainfall totals in the county," Prater said.
