Blogtrek

Storm

This area of the country is affected by a prolonged drought. The forecast was for more of the same: high in the mid 90s, low in the 70s, and a 20 percent chance of an isolated thunderstorm. Well we got our 20 percent today. Boy did we ever. It showed up as a little blip to the northeast of here, but then I heard the thunder. I went outside and saw several vivid strokes of lightning in a row towards the northeast. I went in, wondering how big this was going to be. The blip on the radar showed signs of growing as well as heading to the southwest, a direction that storms don't often take in this neck of the woods. But soon I heard the thunder get louder until it BAMmed!!! almost after the brilliant flash. Then it poured. At first slowly, but then it started filling up the rain gauge until it was up to an inch. Several power blips occurred; I hoped that we were not going to have an outage with the power company on strike. Then the sky started falling. Clack, clack, clack, instead of the usual pitter patter. It was pea-sized hail. I was wondering if it was going to get any bigger. But it didn't. After a while the storm abated, came back again, and then went away. The weatherman said it was heading down I-85, but the next radar I saw of it, it was gone! Poof! Not a speck on radar.

The storm appeared, grew, boomed, poured, flashed and hailed, then it went away without a trace. Like something that just happened in the day. An ephemeral flame. A quantum particle. A brief thought in the mind that fleets the next time one thinks. And although we got an inch and a quarter and the torrent hit the reservoir, most areas went dry. And so the drought continues, and we need rain badly…