Storms teased Snyder Monday
night with a magnificent
lightning show and a handful of
brief power outages, but dropped
less than a half inch of rain on
the city.
The Snyder water plant recorded 0.43 of an inch and several massive lightning strikes that started a pair of grass fires inside the city limits, keeping firefighters hopping through the intermittent showers.
At 7:30 p.m., eight volunteer firefighters extinguished a small fire in a brushy area in the 2700 block of Gary Brewer Road. During the heaviest part of the storm, firefighters were dispatched to a larger grass fire in the area of the nature trail on Houston Ave. and 48th Street. Four trucks with 23 volunteers contained the fire to 15 acres. The storm also knocked out power several times during the evening.
"It is usually something touching the lines," said Jim Clements, Oncor area manager. "It's usually lightning or conductors slapping together -- sometimes it will be trees blowing into the line."
Clements said the breakers on the system have three settings -- instantaneous, time delay and lock out.
"What you are seeing is the breaker killing power and returning it in 15 cycles, and there are 60 cycles in a second," he said. "If the fault is still there, the breaker will open again on a time delay and shut off for 60 seconds. If it's still there, it goes to lock out."
There is a 10 percent chance of more rain today, with a 20 to 30 percent chance lasting through Friday.
Temperatures are expected to remain in the upper 90s and low 100s during the afternoon hours through the weekend, according to the extended forecast.
The Snyder water plant recorded 0.43 of an inch and several massive lightning strikes that started a pair of grass fires inside the city limits, keeping firefighters hopping through the intermittent showers.
At 7:30 p.m., eight volunteer firefighters extinguished a small fire in a brushy area in the 2700 block of Gary Brewer Road. During the heaviest part of the storm, firefighters were dispatched to a larger grass fire in the area of the nature trail on Houston Ave. and 48th Street. Four trucks with 23 volunteers contained the fire to 15 acres. The storm also knocked out power several times during the evening.
"It is usually something touching the lines," said Jim Clements, Oncor area manager. "It's usually lightning or conductors slapping together -- sometimes it will be trees blowing into the line."
Clements said the breakers on the system have three settings -- instantaneous, time delay and lock out.
"What you are seeing is the breaker killing power and returning it in 15 cycles, and there are 60 cycles in a second," he said. "If the fault is still there, the breaker will open again on a time delay and shut off for 60 seconds. If it's still there, it goes to lock out."
There is a 10 percent chance of more rain today, with a 20 to 30 percent chance lasting through Friday.
Temperatures are expected to remain in the upper 90s and low 100s during the afternoon hours through the weekend, according to the extended forecast.
