We’ve been having some interesting weather here lately, rainy and stormy. We’re no strangers to storms here, since we are in a part of the U.S. known as Tornado Alley. But the rain? That’s another story!
Last year we couldn’t buy a rain. But in the last eight days, we’ve had 8.5 inches of rain. The ground is saturated, rivers and creeks are overflowing. We found out yesterday that the farm where we have our church garden is now under water. So much for our 300 hills of potatoes! Perhaps next year we should plant rice instead? Thankfully most farmers didn’t have any crops planted yet in most flooded areas, but many homes have been flooded and families forced out of them. Our potato crop is, well, small potatoes compared to the human suffering the flooding is causing here and all over.
We’ve been fortunate here that bad storms have missed us. The weather radio and storm sirens have kept us from getting much sleep at night though. We bundled up the cats and headed for the basement one night. And yesterday the sirens went off at three o’clock in the morning. It was a tornado warning for our county, but the storm was north of here.
Yesterday afternoon, with storms south of here, one popped up out of nowhere here and started dropping hail on us. Quarter size hail is enough to warrant a severe thunderstorm warning, and sure enough, the sirens went off about five minutes later. Funnel clouds were spotted east of here.
quarter sized hail starting to melt (click on any image to enlarge)
We didn’t see any funnel clouds, but when I went out to see if the hail had done any damage, I saw a doughnut shaped cloud. Or at least it looked like a doughnut to me. Was it going to drop Krispy Kremes out of the sky? That would be better than hail, I think.
doughnut shaped cloud
No, the storms and flooding are no laughing matter, but I think we all need some comic relief about now. At least the rain is making the garden grow lush. We had an asparagus spear that got 20 inches long the other day. That’s one bright spot amid all the gloom and doom.
giant asparagus spear
But what we really need now is a few days with sunshine and no rain, or storms or storm sirens. The forecast for today? 100% chance of rain, with storms likely. Looks like we’ll be Singing In The Rain again. I’m really, really ready to start singing Here Comes The Sun!