Friday, June 22, 2018

Gullywasher

Yesterday was a mishmash of clouds and sun, with thundercells darting around us. The weather called for localized small stream flooding in places thunderstorms hit. But at our place -- nothing.

Until evening.

Then a storm cell began building up, the proportions of which we seldom see around here. It grew bigger and more ominous, and Don and I made sure everything was battened down. It approached from the unusual direction of the northwest (our prevailing wind is from the southwest).


As we watched, the lip of the cell moved over a distant hillside and started dumping rain.


The edges of the cell were seriously dramatic. This is looking north:


And this is looking south:


And then the rain hit, pounding so hard it made bubbles in the puddles. Lightning danced all around us, thunder crashed. Surprisingly we didn't lose power, except for a couple of flickers here and there.


The cattle, which had been grazing in the pasture, came dashing up to take shelter under the barn awning.


The cell passed within 45 minutes. Around 11 pm, another cell passed overhead, with bright flashes of lightning and crashing thunder.

Today is calm and clear, but everywhere are little debris dams from where the rain swirled and washed over the ground during the evening before.




The good news is after a pounding like that, I'm off gardening-watering duty for at least two days.

4 comments:

  1. We could sure use some of that here in Texas. We are just starting our hot dry season and some rain would be very welcome!

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  2. Storms here in the Mid-Ohio Valley two days in a row - small stream flooding yesterday afternoon and evening. None yet today, but sprinkling. Glad you had no damage. Winds from a different direction sometimes means trees down, if you haven't checked your fences yet.

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  3. I love a good crashing storm. It smacks us around and reminds us who God is and how feeble our attempts at controlling things are. Of course I don't want one so bad that anyone suffers, but a good flasher is such a good show.

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  4. I love a good storm too, but our weather here in NE PA has been pretty weird. Has anyone been reading (or listening) about the coming solar minimum, which is supposed to really change up the weather patterns?

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