Holy Thunderstorm, Batman!

Wo!!! For the past day or so, the National Weather Service guys had promised us some potentially severe weather (large amounts of rain mixed with possibly damaging wind and hail), and it looks like they finally came through. I'd discussed this forecast with my co-worker-from-Hell, Jim, before my little boondock boondoggle into the canyon yesterday and thought how nice it would be to be caught in the desert -- or in the mountains -- during a thunderstorm. Not! Anyway, as you saw from my last blog, this didn't happen while I was out. (I could've used the cloud cover, though.) So, as I'm about to grill some chicken to go in my big-bowl-o'-salad, the wind really starts to kick up, blowing out my grill a couple of times. Off to the southwest I can see this huge system of dark clouds and think, "Oh, boy. Looks like somebody's getting it!" As time went on, the southwestern horizon got less and less distinct until it disappeared entirely in a curtain of blue-gray. On top of that, there was a sustained roaring sound coming from that way, too, as marble-sized hail began to pelt down. Hmm . . . I've always heard that a tornado can sound like a freight train, so of course I went on full alert. I was just about to finish grilling my chicken when Wham!, the sky broke open and torrents of rain and hail hit us with the force of said freight train, lasting about 20 minutes or so. The ground was almost white with hail, and I could barely see my neighbors' trailer in front of my house, and a smallish river started out back -- not that I could see much out the windows. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, nothing. As quickly and as forcefully as it came, it went. The wind continued on into the night, but was in no way its old self. Peace returned once again to the land.

I must have taken about a dozen shots of the impending storm in hopes of catching some lightning bolts that were really quite close, but you just have to time it better than that. Oh, well, I think this shot tells it all. We could sure use the rain (1/2" in my little rain gauge), but I hope it and the hail didn't do too much damage to the existing floral displays. If so, I'm sure there will be more to follow. Rain is good, especially in the desert.

End of Report

[THIS JUST IN: Well, it's official -- we officially had 0.49" of official rain in the official rain gauge here at the VC this morning. Boy, those little glass tube rain gauges work pretty well, huh?]