And She Howled....

Friday before last, it was very hot and humid, somewhere in the mid 90s. It had been getting warmer and warmer all week and was just about miserable.

The weather people kept saying that there was a cold front coming in Friday and a drastic change in weather.  Well, we still need the rain, so the news of a possibility of rain was promising.  Friday dawned sunny and hot...noon came and it was still sunny and hot.  By mid afternoon it was stifling and no clouds in sight.  Then suddenly there it was--a large cloud bank coming up in the west.  I had the air on and wasn't that concerned because the weather people hadn't really indicated there was definitely a storm heading in. I did put the dogs collars with i.d. tags on 'just in case'.  The cats I waffled on putting theirs on. 

Sometime there in the late afternoon it hit.  First a huge wind came up and blasted the door open (it wasn't latched) and then the thunder and lightening.  I went around unplugging appliances and electronics, still not really concerned.

Then the hail hit, and I got concerned.  I was still running around unplugging things and getting the radio out to see if anything severe was coming our way.  The hail storm hit, and she howled and wailed and slammed hail into the windows and on the roof.  It was white outside and it looked like a  winter ice storm.   Somewhere in there my concern was that all the kitties hadn't made it into the house, so I was running from window to window trying to see if any little furry bodies were laying out in the storm.  The kitties had rapidly dispersed when the hail storm hit and nary a kitty  hide was to be seen, so that a head count was not possible.

I was sure my truck was going to be damaged, but somehow that didn't happen, maybe because the wind was blowing the hail sideways.

The storm lasted about five to ten minutes of hail, wind, buckets of rain, lightening and thunder.  It was impressive and would have been far scarier if I'd taken a minute to think about it.  When I heard there was a possible tornado headed toward a nearby community blankets and pillows, radio and purse were snatched up and put into the 'vault' room (my pantry).  However there was really no time that I went in and hunkered down. 

We got about an inch and half of rain in ten minutes and almost a 1/4 inch of hail. Then there was a little lull.  It was raining lightly and still some lightening and thunder, but I ran out and checked my truck and on around back to see if the sheepies had survived.  They do have cedar trees to hunker under and wool blankets of course, but still I worried.   I turned them into the lot where the barns are and then ran back to the house. They seemed fine, but wet and a little spooky and all twenty were present and accounted for.

After awhile the storm simmered and died, with just lightly falling rain.  At that point it seemed a good time to head outside to get chores done for the evening, as it was forecast-ed that another storm would be headed in.  

I stepped out on my front porch, and opened the breezeway gate and let the dogs out into the yard.  Right about then the wind picked up and started howling through the trees in the woods across the road.    It was very bizarre, as the wind did not seem to be that strong.  At first I thought it was a diesel pickup coming down the road (no not a train...a pickup...), but it just kept coming without ever appearing.   A few minutes into this puzzle, there was suddenly three large booming cracks that startled both myself and the dogs.  For a brief second I thought it was lightening until I saw a large old oak tree at the edge of neighbor's land slowly topple over and crash to the ground.  Just like that.

Somewhere in there the wind had changed directions and was blowing back from the Northeast--this is never a good thing and was quite eerie.  By this time the temperature had dropped into the 60s.   

The dogs were freaked and so was I.  They went barking down to the edge of the yard while I in turn was yelling for them to get back in the hallway, fearful that there was a straight line wind coming that was going to mow everything down.  At first it looked like the tree that fell was across the road in the woods, only later did I find out that it was on this side of the road and it fell across the gravel road blocking traffic.  A road grader came and pushed it out of the road after a long and arduous battle with the big tree.   Honestly, whatever happened to men and chainsaws and road crews?  Instead an hour or so was spent pushing this huge trunk up and down the road before it yielded to being pushed out of the way.  I have no idea how many hours were spent the next day fixing the road and pushing the tree even further onto someone's property (making a huge mess in the process.).  I declare, as my Grandma would say.

After the hail and rain and the thunder and lightening and wind and backwards wind things simmered down and we continued to get a very light rain into the evening.  No damage to the little farm but it was close.  Too close.

Since we got the rain from this storm we have gotten another two inches of rain over this past weekend.  A lovely slow, slow soaking rain.  The grass is greening and it is finally looking like summer.