Jul 13, 2012 |
Those thunderstorms we’ve been waiting on? You know, once the ridiculously hot triple-digit weather wafted into something a tad bit cooler and stirred up the atmosphere with the confronting high/low pressure fronts…
Yeah. THOSE thunderstorms…
We had our first little taste overnight. At 3:06 a.m. Friday the 13th no less, I was awakened by one subtle roll. Soon after, a louder one, and a few minutes later, a third. But then it was quiet. The rains began gently, turning into a steady downpour but nothing horrific.
But today we’re on the map for several days of STORMS. And they’re coming. In case you doubt me, check out these fine photos!
From Weather.com 2:55 pm July 13, 2012
2:42 pm July 13, 2012.
2:44 pm July 13, 2012
2:45 pm July 13, 2012
I’ll be adding more as the storm front approaches… but for now, I’m reminiscent of a place called Kansas and a girl named Dorothy….
[UPDATE JULY 13, 2012 5:05 PM]
The Severe Weather Alert on my cell phone has been sounding off every half hour (or less). The Flash Flood warnings were originally extended to 4:45 pm. Then 5:00 pm. Now it’s up to 6:30 pm.
The clouds have broken a bit, there’s a touch of blue sky trying to peek through. But over the horizon, it looks more ominous. The birds are flocking to the feeder and bird bath like they’re attending Woodstock. And the breeze keeps kicking up now and then.
Looking forward to tonight. Once, that is, when Dot comes home. I don’t like her being on the road in inclement weather… but what mother does?
[UPDATE JULY 13, 2012 8:02 PM]
The Severe Weather Alert for Flash Flood Warnings has now been extended to 10:00 pm. The dark clouds are back, but I’ve yet to see any real rain fall.
I prefer the rain to fall during the day so I can watch it. When it’s dark, and there’s a flood warning, I worry about what it is I can’t see.
[UPDATE JULY 14, 2012, 9:07 AM]
The alerts kept going off. When I last checked my phone, the alerts had been extended until 11:00 pm last night, or possibly even later.
[Un]fortunately, nothing happened in my part of town. Not a drop. Not a flash of lightning nor roll of thunder. I woke up intermittently throughout the night, wondering what I might see and hear. It was like being in a sensory-deprivation tank… all that anticipation for naught.
And looking outside this morning, it’s a bright and sunny day. And it’s gonna stay that way.
Drats.
And Frankly, My Dear… that’s all she wrote!
Jul 13, 2012 |
These are more photos I took on the hottest day we’ve had so far this year. My flower seeds have finally taken root (no pun intended, but there it is!). Fred is definitely getting ready to produce a harvest of Beefsteak tomatoes. And around the yard are other signs of life. Even Dot and a cat or two got in on the photography session!
I like trying different types of photography: Using natural lighting to change the tones and textures. Changing the object of focus to bring other objects into view instead.
And Frankly, My Dear… that’s all she wrote!
Jul 12, 2012 |
See that? That’s a Photo Grab I took from Weather.com in the middle of the afternoon. Ridiculous, isn’t it? And that’s not the worst of it. It actually got hotter! It reached 107 at my house today. In fact, I started writing this at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday evening, and it was still 105.
Some of my friends who live about five miles away as the crow flies are reporting temperatures as high as 112! The weather report has said today should be the worst of it. Along with slightly cooling temperatures, we’re also now in the running for a few isolated thunderstorms. While thunderstorms are fantastic entertainment, out here they’re dangerous.
Lightning ignites too-dry brush and wild shrubbery. Rain sits atop drought-parched land and instead of soaking in, causes the all-too-familiar flash floods. Either situation is generally a cause for alarm out here, but to have both… no wonder we’re in the midst of a Special Weather Warning. It’s supposed to run for several days.
It’s sometimes hard to live in a place where humidity is so absent that even 5% can make you feeling like you’re swimming in a vat of Jell-O. But once the rain actually falls, there’s this great smell… it settles the dust, and there’s just this smell of dirt and sand and water and pollen and… it’s wonderful. The trees are greener. The shrubs and flowers are fresher. It’s the kind of smell that makes me sit out in my PJs in the early morning, and let the rain drop into my coffee as I take it all in.
Yeah. I’m hoping these are those kinds of clouds.
But before the clouds came in, we had sun. And heat. And a lot of it.
And since our Beach Trip was postponed, and we had nothing planned for the day, in the middle of the hottest moment of this heatwave, we decided to try something I haven’t done in about 20 years.
We tried to fry an egg on the driveway.
Because the driveway has a slight slope, once Dot cracked the egg, it ran a bit.
Five minutes later, it looked the same.
It wasn’t really hot enough to fry an egg. So Dot decided to take a stick and scramble it.
I did another little science experiment and put one ice cube directly on the pavement and a cup of cubes next to it to see if they’d melt at the same rate. They did!
The ice melted. The egg didn’t cook.
But the clouds are coming in, and we had a lovely sunset.
And Frankly, My Dear… that’s all she wrote!
