Unseasonable

You know you're in for an interesting day when you open the front door at 7:00 AM and outside is warmer than in, and almost hot, humid air rushes into the house. It was 70ºF (21ºC) at that time, and I knew two things: first that I was going to take advantage of the warmth to get more garden tasks finished, and second that it was probably going to storm.

As the morning progressed, the winds picked up, and closer to noon when the temperature was a record high 80ºF (27ºC), the storms hit. Rain! Good, hard, soaking rain, and it wasn't going to miss us this time!

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We haven't had a heavy, pouring rain like this since July -- it's been a dry summer for my garden. (Storms have dumped rain on the area at times this summer, but they always missed my yard.)

Look at that water dance!

It was nice to hear the water drumming against the kitchen window!

The winds kept gusting, and it kept changing from stormy to sunny to cloudy to stormy again for a while:

But the crazy winds (gusts of 50 mph or more) were bending the bamboo this way...

...and that way for hours.

The storms were driven by a slight cold front, but the day stayed warm and turned beautiful for the afternoon, so I was able to rake up a good portion of my leaves -- the ones that hadn't blown down the street.


Note that these storms were quite fierce and dangerous at times, spawning tornados that caused much damage and took lives. I'm certainly grateful for the rain they brought, but don't want to detract from the gravity of their effect on so many lives -- my thoughts and well wishes to all affected.

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