Summer Storms - Losing my Sanity!

[QHEventer]

Just a vent, but boy do I wish I could trust my weather apps to accurately predict storms. We have two weeks of stormy weather to look forward to, and after checking both my weather app and accuweather app yesterday decided to keep the horses in since the radar showed severe storms all day long. Nothing materialized except for loud thunder and cloudy skies, so horses were stuck in stalls for nothing.

Last night, I waited until the chance of storms had dropped to under 20% for the remainder of the night, horses were antsy to get out. Checked radars on both apps, both were clear. Put horses out before bed. About an hour later, get an alert on my phone for severe storm warnings. There was a lightning storm, heavy winds, and torrential rainfall for several hours through the night.

I tossed and turned all night worrying about the herd, but they were all fine this morning, thankfully. But, good grief! My anxiety can’t handle this!

[Calvincrowe]

I personally use the National Weather Service for the most accurate forecast for my area. However, severe weather, storms and such, are difficult to truly predict…and a prediction is nothing but an educated guess. I feel you, it’s hard on everyone when the “get it wrong” but as horse owners, we have to be flexible.

Is there any way you could create run in sheds? Or come and go stalls? My boys have those, and it saves me a lot of anxiety knowing they can get under shelter if they need to. (Not that we get storms like much of the country does-- a Tstorm is a rarity here!).

[lenapesadie]

I feel you.

Pop up t storms are the norm here, FL, all summer bar drought. It’s stressful.

Due to personal health, I’m no longer able to consistently move horses in and out of stalls every time the weather changes. I dismantled my double stalls to convert to one regular stall and a run in space. Hopefully horses will continue to volunteer to get out of nasty weather.

[clanter]

@QHEventer

Just a vent, but boy do I wish I could trust my weather apps to accurately predict storms.

just be in North Texas. rarely is forecast correct, it might be sort of in the proper direction but the attempt to be absolutely correct is a dismal failure … it can be raining and the weather would be reported as Sunny Skies Once again… the temperatures foretasted will often be in the proper direction but the actual value might be off five to ten degrees

[wsmoak]

Weatherbug is my current favorite app. I like the lightning alerts. But none of them gets forecasts exactly right, it’s a guessing game always. Once upon a time, Weather Underground was the best thing going, then they sold to IBM and went downhill.

[Texarkana]

I agree having good shelter is the best way to ease anxiety and deal with pop up, unpredictable storms.

Believe me, I share your pain, though. We have been renting a property for the past three years where my shelter situation is less than ideal. In order for everyone to safely have free access to shelter, I have to play musical horses and put them in small paddocks. This morning we had a surprise downpour, so everyone got wet because they were out in the pasture. I don’t mind that so much this time of year because it’s warm and they don’t care. It’s the severe thunderstorms or the cold, winter precipitation that is especially problematic when the forecast is wrong.

[Displaced_Yankee]

Here in NC we expect pop-up storms pretty regularly through the summer. 3 horses have run in sheds and that is a lifesaver. 2 remaining ones do not have sheds, but some good tree cover. Whenever possible, we do put those two up in stalls during severe storms, but we also have the trouble of forecasting that iffy 20%-50% chance of a severe thunderstorm.

Typically we consider the % chance of storms and for how long it may endure. For example, we may leave them out if it calls for 60% chance of storms, but only for an hour. If we are looking at 30% chance of storms for several hours, they should probably go in. If they have been in for several nights or days in a row, we may kick them out. Happier to have them get a quick shower than to stand in their stall another night and have it not rain. We do the best we can.

I have also had better luck with our local news station’s weather app. Probably due to their knowledge of the region, it seems more accurate than WeatherBug.

[happilyretired]

Forecasts and even radar in Central Florida are fairly useless in predicting exactly where summer storms may/will pop up. We can have torrential rain at our place and just down the road it will be dry. Summer in Florida …

[SusanO]

I try to look at radar and forecast that way. Mine are in during the day and I like to put them out as it gets dark. They avoid the heat and the divebombers that way. But then we get a forecast for storms at 3 or 4AM so I leave them in. The storms do not materialize so they go out in the morning and by 10 AM the princess is trying to tear the fence down to come in. I don’t mind them getting wet but I do not like the lightening.

We have had some ugly weather here the last month. But some of the big storms end up going south east or north east of us. I would like to get in a consistent turnout schedule.

[Bluey]

They can’t hit it here either.
We don’t put horses in, they take care of themselves.
Once next morning from storms one horse was missing.
Found him waiting for help, high-centered on some mesquite.
He was fine once we cut enough branches out for him to move without being poked:

[lenapesadie]

@SusanO

I don’t mind them getting wet but I do not like the lightening.

SAME!!!

[EmilyM]

I am so with you on this!

I have found that WeatherBug does a good job of predicting a few days out if you can expect rain. Then I cross reference w AccuWeather which seems better as you get closer to decision time. I also study the radar. I make decisions with all that info. And sometimes I wake up to lightening and can’t sleep worrying about them.

[Alterration]

Yep, today it wasn’t supposed to rain until 8pm. All the horses were out at 4 and it started to pour and thunder. The other day it was supposed to start at 2, and it never ended up thunderstorming.

I think I would feel less bad if we had run-in sheds but we don’t yet, so we err on the side of caution but sometimes get it wrong!

[enjoytheride]

With some construction on the farm being delayed I had the same issue, watching the forecast because they didn’t have access to shelter and not wanting them out with the predictions of baseball sized hail and lightning. Hasn’t rained a drop all weekend, despite the forecast predicting up to 5 inches!

[2DogsFarm]

I have a similar setup to @calvincrowe - horses have access to stalls from pasture 24/7/365.

I spent yesterday afternoon nail-biting & watching weather alerts for possible tornados.
Touchdown happened less than 20mi from me.
The only place in my house w/o windows is my BR closet.
Getting me & 2 cats in there was not attractive.

Horses were on their own while torrential rain & strong winds accompanied the TV warnings.
I finally got a chance to get to the barn at 3P to close the big front sliding door & feed horses.
They had been out, only 2 piles in the Men’s Room stall & wet on their backs.

Chickens were in their fenced yard, under the overhang, complaining about the weather.

Wind & rain came back with a vengeance at 5, veered off Northeast & the skies actually cleared.
Tornado Watch was lifted at 5:45.

We were in near-drought, so rain was needed. Just not all in 1 day.

Fun times.
Today is overcast & cooler, humidity is around 90%.

[AnastasiaBeaverhousen]

Download one of your local news station weather apps. They usually have some kind of lightning detection that will trigger a warning in your phone if cloud to ground lightning is close by.

Use theloop feature on your radar apps. You can get an idea of which way the TS cells are moving.
Generally speaking they move from SW to NE , but not always.
And if they are summer time pop up TS it may be difficult to determine which way they are moving if they move at all.

Generally speaking, TS this time of the year don’t have much hail as the surface temps are too warm.

National Weather Service warnings are much more precise now that they have the polygon warning area.

If you don’t have one already get a NOAA weather alert radio. They are easy to program and you will only get warnings for your area. You may want to get more than one and put one in your barn as well as your house.

Run in sheds are iffy. Sometimes horses won’t use them. And as an extra added bonus of worry, you have to make sure that there are enough of them so every horse can get in.

I boarded at a barn where the owner had put up three run in sheds out in the pasture . The other two never got used. And the one that did get used had two horses in the shed and all the rest standing around forlorn, because the other two kept them out.

That’s horses.

And sometimes they don’t care. I was at a lesson barn one summer afternoon and a line of strong thunderstorms rolled through with a lot of cloud to ground lightning. Very noisy and scary and all the horses were out and they went on grazing as if nothing was happening.

Not a single spook or running around.

Hope this will help you and allay some of your fears.

[QHEventer]

The storms here have been wild! I do have a nice shelter, and just need to reconfigure fencing so horses have access to it 24/7. There is really no way to allow free access to my barn, unfortunately.

We had flash flooding which washed out the road on either side of our bridge and now there are some massive trunks sitting on top of said bridge. A big limb fell on top of the barn poking a hole in the roof right over the hay storage room, and a big oak tree in the dry lot was struck by lightning and now needs to come down. I’m ready for some more normal weather !!!

[2DogsFarm]

@AnastasiaBeaverhousen

And sometimes they don’t care.

This was my Horses At Home 101
The first year I had my farm, I was having dinner at friends’. Maybe 5min from home.
Thunder, lightning & torrential downpour had me make a hasty exit & race home.
To find horses grazing in the field, lightning strikes & thunder lighting up the skies
I got thoroughly drenched, but got them in, put down hay…
They each had a mouthful, then wandered back out into the maelstrom
I stood there, dripping & came to the realization that I could make the choice, or let them.
Score:
Horses - 1
Me - 0

[LilRanger]

I too rely on the NWS for my area. My NWS folks are crazy detailed, I’ve noticed there’s quite a lot of variation in how much detail gets discussed based on the local office. Of course, we have a couple of three AFBs in the area. so that may be why we get so much info. I have noticed, that about 5 years ago there was a big warning about a severe storm that never materialized. The Local NWS office was incredibly embarrassed, and since then, they have gotten really, really detailed and discuss a lot of variables and factors, and take most of the severe storms with a grain of salt.

I have also taken care to notice what my weather actually is based off of what I read in the forecast discussion and I am better able to make assesments for my neighborhood now. We live in a river valley surrounded by a few mountain ranges, all of which make for really dynamic weather, and a lot of variation even just a mile or two in another direction.

Ok, yes, I am a total weather nerd.

I also read the ENSO blog for even more data!

[Calvincrowe]

I’m a weather nerd, too, and the NWS forecast discussion is awesome! I’ve learned so much about the models and variables that go into forecasting the weather from it. My area is notoriously difficult to predict severe weather—the ocean, the cascade mountains, the Columbia Gorge, all add up to some oopses over the years. They sure nailed this extreme heat we are having, though. I’d take a big, juicy, wet thunderstorm right about now—-but no lightning caused fires, please!