And those are the clouds that signal the possibility of a severe storm, according to www.weathersavvy.com.
Not long after the clouds disappeared Thursday, lightning started its show, coming in huge bursts with thunder claps about 9 p.m.
The area was under a tornado watch until 10 p.m.
Thursday’s weather followed a storm Wednesday night that dumped 0.21 inches of rain on Temple and knocked out power to as many as 900 customers in the Temple-Belton area at the height of an electrical storm that tore through East Bell County.
“That was a spike,” said John Toone, area manager for Oncor Electric Delivery.
Toone said those customer numbers were short-lived and the average dropped back to 300 as the night wore on.
“That number began to come down between 3 and 4 a.m.,” he said.
There were 50 customers still without electricity at Woodlands Trail by late afternoon Thursday, Toone said.
The Temple Public Library was without power Thursday morning and canceled its morning reading program for youngsters. The power came back on about 11 a.m.
He said the outages were not concentrated in any particular place but all over the map.
“Overall, with the wind speeds and lightning activity we experienced, the outages were not that bad,” he said. “We are in that season and it will continue through July.”
Toone said part of the reason the average number of outages was so low is due to the aggressive tree-trimming program of late.
“It’s that tree trimming people complain about,” Toone said. “But it kept the number of broken lines to a minimum.”
Toone said the major cause of outages is blown transformers and fuses. Fuses are about a foot long and are rated for 30, 50 or 100 amps, he said. They are often used at junctures off the main line going down a major thoroughfare where it taps off to go down a side street or alley.
“That way if a fuse blows maybe only 10 customers will be without light rather than 500 or 1,000,” Toone said.
Toone said the company’s strategy is to restore service first to equipment where the largest number of customers can be brought back on line.
Hospitals, police stations and lift stations are listed as high priorities.
“If we can close a fuse and get 500 back on line, that will be our priority.”
Toone said he didn’t have the exact figure but over all of Bell County there were several hundred outages needing repair.
Thursday, storms from the west started hitting the Copperas Cove area at about 7:15 p.m. and were moving southeast at about 35 mph.
The storms were expected to produce cloud-to-ground lightning, very heavy rainfall and half-inch hail. Wind gusts to 50 mph were expected.
Showers and thunderstorms were expected to arrive locally before 5 a.m.
Temperatures today are expected to be around 98 degrees with a Realfeel of 105 degrees. The day will be partly sunny and hot with the temperature approaching the record of 100 degrees set in 1953.
