Stormy Weather

Our area has been stuck in a pattern of hot, sunny days with gathering clouds in the west,  until late afternoon or early evening when the storms "overcome the sun"--meaning that they become powerful enough to take over the sky.

On July 20 our little town was celebrating its centennial.  The fireworks finished at 10 p.m., just ahead of a massive thunderstorm that seemed like a fabulous continuation of a "sound and light show."

That Saturday morning started with rain.  Around 10 a.m. the sky grew lighter, and exactly at 11 a.m. the sun broke through, precisely at the start time for the parade.

These pictures are of the storms we had on Tuesday between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.  The top photo shows the storm approaching from the west.  This is just a small segment of the western sky which was filled with similar clouds.

The second photo shows the leading edge of the storm as it passed south of us.  The under cloud, just above the trees, had two conflicting swirls of wind driving it.  I fully expected to see a funnel reach down from that maelstrom!  We were under tornado warning again that night, as we have been several times this summer.

This third photo shows the leading edge of the second storm.  This was the heaviest storm that evening and did serious damage south of us.  We are about 1 1/4 miles north of town.  The southern part of town and the crop land beyond that were totally hailed out.  Someone said their garden looked like a rice paddy.  Another person said she shovelled several inches of hail off her back deck.

This is the front page of Wednesday's paper, the left photo showing the accumulated hail on one of the streets, the right photo showing the flooding down the lower end of main street.

Our neighbour, who farms several different sections of land, was out Wednesday morning checking his scattered fields.  Some of his crops were 100% hailed out.  It's such a terrible shame, especially since the crops here were in fantastic shape, and would be badly needed in view of the many areas in North America that are experiencing historic levels of drought!

This last photo gives a little indication of how hard it was raining.  It was like a solid curtain of rain, being shoved horizontally by the heavy wind.

I had written this whole post yesterday, but was having trouble with blogger and couldn't get it published.  So here it is now, and we'll see if it's a go.