I was seeing off a client a couple of days ago in that tender hour just before the sun kisses the horizon. I was surprised to see a huge cloud building just to the southwest of here, because as I worked on the tense muscles in her back, I could hear the weatherman blathering in the room across the hall where my husband was watching the news while putting the finishing touches on our evening repast. In his technological innocence, the “Staff Meteorologist” had proclaimed that it was going to be a quiet night stormwise in our neck of the Ozarks, the only activity he could see was far south of here on the Arkansas/Missouri line, blah blah blah TIME FOR A COMMERCIAL….
I love looking at the satellite and radar images on the NOAA site, and I appreciate all the technology that the meteorologists use. The trouble is, all that up-to-date science can’t seem to compete with going out and looking up at the sky.
As soon as I did, I knew I had to be sure and remember to share this with Skywatch!
I went right out to the backyard after I finished a short photo session featuring the growing storm cell, and removed the dry laundry from the clothesline. As I was carrying it in, my dear niece looked at me and said “I was going to take care of that after dinner,” in that tone that tells me that she expects to be verbally chastised for her irresponsibility.
Soothingly, I told her that it seemed to me that waiting until after dinner was probably going to be too long. I opined that it looked like rain in the near future to me.
This beautiful child of the electronic age informed me, “Well, we were just looking at the radar on the News, and the Weatherman didn’t think it was going to rain anywhere around here tonight.”
I’m afraid my acerbity rose to the top of my conversational gambits at this point and I said something like, “Maybe he should look out the window before he makes his forecast,” and threw the dry laundry on the couch. Then I grabbed my camera and went out to take pictures of the building storm.
It was really awe-inspiring to watch the cloud feed on the setting sun’s energy and grow from a few wisps to this rain-heavy monster. It only took about around 45 minutes total, and soon after I took the above shot, the ground strikes began, so I decided to go inside.
The storm struck quickly after that, with strong downdrafts but no hail (thankfully), and was a monsoon-like deluge. It filled the rain garden up with water and when it was all over (20 minutes later) we had received .9 inches.
The storm moved majestically off to the north east, flashing and banging until well after dark. Jim and I spent twenty minutes out in the carport trying to get a decent video of the amazing lightning display that was going on, but our camera was not up to the job, so I only have memories.
Mallory has discovered the area behind the stereo cabinet and the computer desk, where the approximately two thousand electrical cords live in a snaky disorder. The cord that connects the keyboard to the computer has some sort of evil fascination. This post was interrupted several times as the spray bottle discipline was administered in an apparently futile effort to dissuade her from her firmly held belief that all of that wonderful stuff back there was provided solely for her amusement. Right this second she is killing a paper ball; in the time it has taken me to type this the paper ball has been under the dining room table, ran away from her through the kitchen into the living room, hid unsuccessfully from her under the coffee table, made its way quickly down the hall and has now been in 99 of the 100 square feet of this family room and apparently now has led her astray back into the forbidden paradise of stereo cords…. I must go now…..
