Climate Anomalies | The Professor's Convatorium

This is my final post of the series and the events of July 4th–7th, 2025 and the extreme flooding disaster here in the Hill Country.

This July 7th news briefing by Dalton Rice, Kerrville City Manager and part of the Kerr County emergency services, deserves to be mentioned and watched here:

*https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/07/us/video/kerrville-texas-flooding-evacuate-sooner-digvid*

“We did not want to cry wolf too soon.”

Mr. Rice went on to say and imply that ‘we did not want to or need to alert residents too early. We wanted to wait and see.’ 😲

Having covered these events before and during the severe flooding, now we are ready for the nauseating aftermath of July 4th.

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The ABC news affiliate in San Antonio, KSAT, reported today that at 4:22am July 4th, a volunteer fireman in Ingram, Texas, contacted the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office—protocol for Texas fire departments working in sync with other officials for public safety—and he urged the Sheriff’s Office to send out CodeRED alerts to Hunt and Ingram residents. Contrary to what state and county officials are “claiming and saying” to the media, the public, the nation, and the world these last 6-days, the facts are it took these Kerr County and state officials almost 6-hours to respond with those emergency alerts. Shocking, just utterly shocking! From ABC news:

“The Guadalupe Schumacher sign is underwater on State Highway 39,” the firefighter said in the dispatch audio. “Is there any way we can send a CodeRED out to our Hunt residents, asking them to find higher ground or stay home?”

“Stand by, we have to get that approved with our supervisor,” a Kerr County Sheriff’s Office dispatcher replied.

The first alert didn’t come through Kerr County’s CodeRED system until 90 minutes later. Some messages didn’t arrive until after 10 a.m. By then, hundreds of people had been swept away by the floodwaters.

Kerr County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

— ABC News.com, July 10, 2025

Now a question Mr. Dalton Rice, was holding off emergency crews and waiting 90-minutes and upwards of 6-hours enough waiting time to “not cry wolf?” Given the long history of frequent severe flash floods in this region in late-June through July going back to the early 1930’s, these are not stupid, worry-wart concerns and questions, not when actual human lives are at high risk. I’m curious to know how many years (or less?) Mr. Rice has lived in Kerrville, TX and the Hill Country. In a quick search I was unable to determine this.

Six days after the horrific events of the wee-hours of July 4th, local government officials here in Kerr County, Travis County (Austin, TX and our capitol), and federal officials in Washington D.C., are still arrogantly defending themselves and their political colleagues on how everyone performed beginning at about 1:15am–1:30am, July 4th.

One of the most popular remarks coming from all these officials is ‘We never could have predicted this type of storm and flooding in time to save lives.’ Jebus H. Christmas! If I hear this excuse come out of their mouths again, I’m going to just pullout all of my hair—what I have left—in a long fit of fury and screaming. 😡 That is such a lame cop-out excuse and simply NOT TRUE! Why? Because meteorologists, climatologists, atmospheric scientists, ecologists, oceanographers (e.g. NOAA), geologists, environmental engineers, economists, sociologists, and disaster-counseling psychologists have all been warning populations and every branch of federal, state, and local governments that exactly what is happening now and HAS BEEN happening the last 20-50 years was all predicted in at least the early-1980’s. Fact.

However, aside from those warnings by all weather related fields, the Texas Hill Country, which is dominated by ultra-Conservative politics and now MAGA politics, have known for decades that this region often referred to as Flash Flood Alley is very prone to severe flash floods that leave little time for residents to evacuate. But that knowledge and preparation is obviously outdated now.

Here are the some of the severe floods along with the most notable, severe floods in the past for this area during the three months of June, July, and August as well as those associated with tropical storms and hurricanes:

July 16, 1900: This is listed as the first catastrophic flood event locally as more than 11 inches of rain was reported in the area. San Antonio newspaper reports indicated that houses were washed away, and camps were heavily damaged. The Guadalupe River crested at 31 feet ,and significant damage was reported to the Kerrville electrical light plant. “Damage to crops and fences was enormous, but no lives lost,” according to a San Antonio paper report. Downstream, a 42-foot crest was observed at Comfort.

July 1909: The next major flood to strike the area was in 1909. Rainfall totals of 8 to 10 inches were observed and, while no lives were lost, the power plant was destroyed again.

September 1915: The flood of 1915 threatened to annihilate Ingram, according to official weather reports. Major flooding occurred upstream, producing a 30-foot wall of water. Many homes were destroyed or washed away, along with large loss of animal life. No loss of life was observed.

July 1st, 1932: Hard heavy rains pushed the Guadalupe River out of its banks, resulting in many fatalities and significant property damage.

*Guadalupe River, July 1, 1932.Photo taken from atop the Blue Bonnet Hotel, facing upriver. Note the Cascade Pool in the bottom right.*

*Guadalupe River, Kerrville, July 1 1932*

September 13th, 1936: This is the month it never stopped raining. On Sept. 13, 1936, it rained 0.56 inches, which was followed by 6.42 inches of rain on Sept. 14 and 5.95 inches of rain on the 15. Then another 0.95 inches fell on Sept. 16. A small break in the action occurred, but then it rained another 4.58 inches on Sept. 27 to close out the month. This was triggered by a tropical disturbance that passed inland near Corpus Christi and remained stationary across the area for days. As high as this total was, San Angelo was the wettest location in Texas, recording 27.65 inches of rain that month. Every station in the Texas Hill Country reported at least 10 inches of rain that month, and flooding was observed everywhere. The fatality occurred at Quinlan Creek on the bridge along Fourth Street, when a 75-year old man was on a low-lying bridge and rising waters knocked him off his feet and carried him a quarter mile downstream.

August 2nd, 1978: Tropical storm Amelia stalled over the Guadalupe and Medina Rivers, causing severe flooding that killed 33 people and caused widespread damage.

October 19th, 1985: The Guadalupe River rose 22.80 ft at Hunt, TX. I could not find the loss of life number for this event.

July 17th, 1987: During the overnight hours between July 16 and 17, up to 15 inches of rain was estimated to have fallen just west of Hunt. Rain in Edwards and Real County spread east into Kerr County, and the storm was a quiet killer. This was caused by a cloudburst rain event that produced a crest between 35 and 40 feet, a weather phenomena here that is increasingly frequent every 1-2 years. Young campers were trying to evacuate before the flood hit, but many did not escape in time. Ten people were killed in this tragic event, but one body was not recovered until several years later.

July 4th, 2002: Comfort reported more than 32 inches of rain. Estimates of 40 to 50 inches of rain were reported between Kerrville, Center Point and Comfort. The damage along Lytle Street was significant ,with major flooding and damage reported. The Guadalupe River rose to record levels, but not in Kerrville, as the rain fell over the city and drained toward Canyon Lake, creating water breaches in the Canyon Lake Spillway area near New Braunfels. Nine lives were lost in this flood event, mainly east of Kerrville.

May 27th, 2020: This May brought a thunderstorm event that caused more than $1-million in damages during the late afternoon and early evening hours of May 27. A supercell thunderstorm moved to the south from Mason and Gillespie counties. A large shelf cloud was observed with this storm, and it produced golf-ball sized hail, wind gusts between 75 and 100 mph and reports of tornadoes. The death toll for this storm is difficult to determine, however, archived reports imply fatalities from these extreme weather events have gone down since 2002… until July 4th–6th, 2025.

Therefore, when local, county, state, and federal officials tell residents of the Texas Hill Country that these type of extreme weather storms and floods happen only about every “100-years,” or “we couldn’t have predicted this,” or “the warning systems and staff are in place for these types of disasters,” they are obviously lying through their teeth as can be shown above in the long history of Kerrville, Hunt, Ingram, Center Point, and Comfort, Texas. Period. It simply is not true.

But sadly and maddeningly for residents here, officials like Dalton Rice (R), Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha (R), former Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring, Jr. (R), federal Representative Chip Roy (R), Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem (R), and Senator Ted Cruz (R), and many other so-called “officials superbly performing and executing” their public duties of office… in this case and disaster it is pure and simple lies and more lies still arrogantly defending themselves and their political colleagues.

Meanwhile, 111+ people are dead, many were children, and 161+ persons are still unaccounted for as recovery efforts for dead bodies continue. 😣😢

For further reading and research about Climate Change right now and the havoc it is causing the Earth:

—Letters from an American July 12, 2025, by Heather Cox Richardson

—https://watchers.news/2025/07/06/early-stratospheric-warming-waves-south-pole-polar-vortex/

—https://phys.org/news/2025-07-meltdown-swiss-glaciers-annual-weeks.html

Global Weirding

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**PBS Frontline** investigated FEMA and our MAGA Republican leaders and officials who failed the public and Camp Mystic. Click on image for the report.

— Texas Flooding Tragedy: State And Local Officials—And Partisan Politics—Face Blame For No Alarm Systems – Forbes.com

— River Managers in Kerr County Had the Money to Improve Flood Detection. Here’s What They Did with it Instead – KENS5.com

— Federal Records Contradict What FEMA Leader (David Richardson) Told Congress about Texas Flood Response – NPR.org

Live Right – Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always

Our Hallows stories remind again, warnings to callous men unwary, mother Earth’s grace tested will run short unleashing untold fury.

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had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguish’d, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came and went—and came, and brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in the dread
Of this their desolation; and all hearts
Were chill’d into a selfish prayer for light:
And they did live by watchfires—and the thrones,
The palaces of crowned kings—the huts,
The habitations of all things which dwell,
Were burnt for beacons; cities were consum’d,
And men were gather’d round their blazing homes
To look once more into each other’s face;
Happy were those who dwelt within the eye
Of the volcanos, and their mountain-torch:
A fearful hope was all the world contain’d;
Forests were set on fire—but hour by hour
They fell and faded—and the crackling trunks
Extinguish’d with a crash—and all was black.
The brows of men by the despairing light
Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits
The flashes fell upon them; some lay down
And hid their eyes and wept; and some did rest
Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smil’d;
And others hurried to and fro, and fed
Their funeral piles with fuel, and look’d up
With mad disquietude on the dull sky,
The pall of a past world; and then again
With curses cast them down upon the dust,
And gnash’d their teeth and howl’d: the wild birds shriek’d
And, terrified, did flutter on the ground,
And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes
Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl’d
And twin’d themselves among the multitude,
Hissing, but stingless—they were slain for food.
And War, which for a moment was no more,
Did glut himself again: a meal was bought
With blood, and each sate sullenly apart
Gorging himself in gloom: no love was left;
All earth was but one thought—and that was death
Immediate and inglorious; and the pang
Of famine fed upon all entrails—men
Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh;
The meagre by the meagre were devour’d,
Even dogs assail’d their masters, all save one,
And he was faithful to a corse, and kept
The birds and beasts and famish’d men at bay,
Till hunger clung them, or the dropping dead
Lur’d their lank jaws; himself sought out no food,
But with a piteous and perpetual moan,
And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand
Which answer’d not with a caress—he died.
The crowd was famish’d by degrees; but two
Of an enormous city did survive,
And they were enemies: they met beside
The dying embers of an altar-place
Where had been heap’d a mass of holy things
For an unholy usage; they rak’d up,
And shivering scrap’d with their cold skeleton hands
The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath
Blew for a little life, and made a flame
Which was a mockery; then they lifted up
Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld
Each other’s aspects—saw, and shriek’d, and died—
Even of their mutual hideousness they died,
Unknowing who he was upon whose brow
Famine had written Fiend. The world was void,
The populous and the powerful was a lump,
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless—
A lump of death—a chaos of hard clay.
The rivers, lakes and ocean all stood still,
And nothing stirr’d within their silent depths;
Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea,
And their masts fell down piecemeal: as they dropp’d
They slept on the abyss without a surge—
The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave,
The moon, their mistress, had expir’d before;
The winds were wither’d in the stagnant air,
And the clouds perish’d; Darkness had no need
Of aid from them—She was the Universe.