Late last night a severe rain and thunderstorm moved through our area. Today when I rode north I saw the aftermath of the heavy rain. I saw tree debris on the streets and some places had dirt washed out into the middle of the street. A personal weather station a couple of miles from me recorded 8.14″ of rain. The first flooding I ran into was on Knox Street just west of Loop 494. This is the street I use to go to US59 but I had to take a detour to the next street to the south. As I was riding north on the service road I could see more streets with water over parts of them. The drainage ditches were full as well.

The sky was cloudy making me think more rain was possible but none fell during the ride. It felt like a fall day with the temperature at 79 when I started the ride at 10:47. With the perspiration I was actually chilly at times when the breeze kicked up. When I stopped at the Stripes station on FM1314 though the sweat was flowing heavily. The light breeze was from the WNW at 6 mph. By the time I got home at 1:47 the temperature had moved to 84 with 68% humidity.

Biking what I call the “New Caney – Gene Campbell Road” route was 36.54 miles long. As I left the house I forgot to go on the streets I use to add distance to the exit out of Kingwood on Adams Street but I corrected some of this by changing the streets in Sherwood Trails Village before getting to Woodridge Forest. I had to ride around some fallen tree limbs along the route. When I passed by the Grand Parkway clearing work site on FM1314 there was no activity. I could see standing water in the cleared area.

I stopped at the Stripes store on FM1314 as I rode to the southeast toward Porter. I got a handful of paper towels at the pumps and rode to the front of the store. When I am Stripes around lunch time I usually exchange hellos with a man who comes on a Harley-Davidson. Today he was sitting on the soft drinks stacked outside in the shade. He asked if I got caught in the rain yesterday afternoon and I replied that I didn’t but rode on wet streets. Then we talked about last night’s storm. He lives in Plantation Estates not too far from Stripes. He said during the storm he couldn’t see his garage which is 60 feet from his house because of the rain. Later at 2:30 this morning he drove to Stripes to see what had happened. Streets were flooded, sheriff deputies were out directing traffic around flooded areas and tow trucks were pulling cars out high water. Electricity was off except at Stripes and Whataburger. The weather has moved offshore but sometimes these sneak back and give us another dose.

With the cooler weather and light breeze at my back I was able to use the big chain ring when I was headed to Porter on FM1314. Interval 5 shows 19.4 mph as the average speed. I need to do this more often. Overall I averaged 16.0 mph.

My mileage goal for August will be the same as what I rode in August 2013: 845 miles.

Weather for Saturday looks favorable for biking: 88 degrees, partly cloudy and a low chance of rain.

Standings after today’s ride:

• 153.23 miles for the week
• 36.54 miles for August
• 4249 miles for the year

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Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS