​App: App Shopper
Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Windows, Palm
Web site: WeatherBug Web site
Cost: $0.99

People who know me know I'm a weather nerd. I love reading about it and talking about high pressure areas, cold fronts, hurricanes and the like. The doppler radar plays a prominent role in my mornings. It's ridiculous, but I'm okay with that.

Last year, I put together a list of my nine favorite weather apps. The Weather Channel app, which also ranked fourth on my list of the best apps of 2011, was my number one. The app that is the subject of this post was number three. Well, there's a new app in town and it's my new number one with a bullet.

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​We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them.

So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even.

This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involving wit, clarity and whatever else we feel like at the moment.

John Nova Lomax wrote about the state moving to shut down the Fannin Food Mart right across from the downtown bus station due to the high rate of crime. Lomax lamented the de-funkification of the downtown/midtown area, but when commenter "try it" chimed in, we started to figure it out.

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Courtesy Weather Underground

​As has been mentioned by weather forecasters in recent days, some pretty rough weather is passing through Houston this morning as part of a cold front. The storms are spanning high winds, torrential rain (some areas could receive up to five inches), flash flooding and potential tornadoes.

According to a source, Hobby Airport has been shut down temporarily as the result of the bad weather, no doubt at least in part due to high winds and wind shear. No word yet on Bush Intercontinental, but we'd imagine rough conditions throughout the area won't make air travel -- or ground travel for that matter -- easy.

The thunderstorms are moving very slowly from west to east but pulling moisture up from the Gulf, creating what meteorologists call a "training effect." The bad weather is expected to be with us throughout the day. We'll keep you posted as conditions change.

UPDATE 11:50 a.m. According to the National Weather Service, at least three tornados have touched down northwest of Houston near Somerville and Brenham. Damage to trees and a tire shop have been reported. A severe thunderstorm warning remains in effect for the Houston area until 2 p.m. as does a tornado watch.

UPDATE 12:10 a.m. A tornado was spotted south of Houston near Manvel moving east around 25 mph. A tornado warning is in effect for southern portions of Houston along a path that includes Pearland and Friendswood.

Not quite as bad as The Day After Tomorrow, but close.

​There is an oft overused axiom about weather in Texas: If you don't like it, wait. It owes to our ever-changing weather and the diversity of our state, but lately it feels like Houston's climate has taken that to the extreme. One day is jacket weather and the next the air conditioning is on full blast as we curse the electric company. In fact, last Friday we set the record at 81 degrees, which was one degree higher than the previous record, set in 1999.

Today, it's cloudy and cool. Yesterday it was partly cloudy and muggy. We've got rain on the way later today and Wednesday. It's nuts.

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The first step.

​Monday's incredible flash storm left a lot of cars underwater to one degree or another.

Being underwater is not good for cars. It can lead to moldy smells from sodden rugs and upholstery to mysterious problems with the electrical system, problems that might not be immediately apparent.

But when a lot of cars get hit at the same time, the system for rectifying those problems can be tested.

And that's why it's tough to get a rental car or an insurance adjuster in Houston right now.

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It's no time to be on the road

​You wanted rain, you're getting it.

You're also getting a reported tornado touchdown in Fort Bend County and flooded service roads and intersections.

Power is out in some areas of the city; others have lost internet service.

Reports coming in from TxDOT and various tweeters indicated impassable conditions at such locations as Beltway 8 and Memorial Drive, Beltway 8 and the Katy, the service roads near the Westpark Tollway and 59 and Weslayan and Bissonnet. There will be more, as we're under a flash flood warning.

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Courtesy Harris-Mann Climatology.

​In August and September when we in Houston are suffering through brutal heat and humidity, there is a tendency for people from here to bemoan the hot Texas summers and for our friends in the northern part of the country to brag about 75-degree summer highs. In those months when I'm sweating from pores I didn't know existed and pawning stuff to pay my electric bill, I just try and remember what it will be like in January when those same a-holes telling me about their perfect summer are digging themselves out from under 15 inches of snow while we walk around in flip-flops.

Despite an extremely chilly early part of February in 2011, last winter was relatively mild overall and this winter, so far, has been the same. The last few days may have been a tad warmer than usual, but, overall the weather has been downright wonderful. Expect more of the same the rest of this month and into February.

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​We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them.

So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even.

This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involving wit, clarity and whatever else we feel like at the moment.

We wrote about an accused meth dealer who was arrested for intimidating a witness, who then posed for a mugshot that seemed to pretty much prove the case against her.

One reader went farther.

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Photo by Barry Sigman

That's Fort Bend county, people.

​There's an old saying, "If you don't like the weather in Texas, wait." In 2011, that statement was on full display as we suffered some of the wildest weather changes the state has ever seen.

In Houston, there was at least some consistency. Unfortunately, that consistency came in the form of a brutal drought, the likes of which we rarely see in our tropical city. As one friend used to say, "Houston is fucking lush." Just not this year.

With droughts and heat and snow (yeah, snow) and cold and wildfires and hurricanes (or lack thereof), we saw some crazy weather in 2011. Here's your year-end wrap-up.

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​We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them.

So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even.

This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involving wit, clarity and whatever else we feel like at the moment.

We wrote about how a lawyer who was instrumental in gaining more power for Texas homeowners associations over residents had gotten four years in prison for possession of child porn.

One reader had a concise reaction.

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