Low Post Month
What can I say? Not a whole lot has been going on.
I've celebrated my birthday in some fairly random ways. On my 18th, I was in Kansas City and the roller coaster I was waiting for got shut down due to lightning. On my 21st, it snowed 8 inches.
This year, as we were sitting down to eat, the civil alert sirens went off. I looked at Shorty, raised an eyebrow, and asked, "Air raid?"
While a tornado would be moderately commonplace at this time of year, this time there was a wall of wind coming. It had been nice all day -- sunny and clear -- but around 7PM storm clouds were approaching. When the sirens went off, we checked the weather to find that they were expecting the wind to go from calm to 50+mph straight-lines in a matter of seconds. We spent the next five minutes battening down the hatches. And watching.
Sure enough, you could see it coming. Trees south of us suddenly bent under its force, moving slowly toward us. When it hit, the temperature dropped about ten degrees.
Fifteen minutes later, it started raining ... and an hour after that it was over.
Now, keep in mind that wind like that -- at least, the strength of it -- isn't uncommon here. A "windy day" will likely mean steady breezes at 25+mph and gusts over 40mph. This particular evening was odd because a) it was coming from a slightly abnormal direction, and b) it hit just that suddenly.
Our neighborhood did just fine. No major damage. In fact, most of the immediate area was fine. Iowa got a few tornados out of it. (From our view, we could pick out the cloud that was likely giving them trouble.)
The rest of the week? Rainy and dull.
Today, however, is gorgeous. And I'm almost done packing up so I can hit the road.
My gypsy summer is about to begin.
I've celebrated my birthday in some fairly random ways. On my 18th, I was in Kansas City and the roller coaster I was waiting for got shut down due to lightning. On my 21st, it snowed 8 inches.
This year, as we were sitting down to eat, the civil alert sirens went off. I looked at Shorty, raised an eyebrow, and asked, "Air raid?"
While a tornado would be moderately commonplace at this time of year, this time there was a wall of wind coming. It had been nice all day -- sunny and clear -- but around 7PM storm clouds were approaching. When the sirens went off, we checked the weather to find that they were expecting the wind to go from calm to 50+mph straight-lines in a matter of seconds. We spent the next five minutes battening down the hatches. And watching.
Sure enough, you could see it coming. Trees south of us suddenly bent under its force, moving slowly toward us. When it hit, the temperature dropped about ten degrees.
Fifteen minutes later, it started raining ... and an hour after that it was over.
Now, keep in mind that wind like that -- at least, the strength of it -- isn't uncommon here. A "windy day" will likely mean steady breezes at 25+mph and gusts over 40mph. This particular evening was odd because a) it was coming from a slightly abnormal direction, and b) it hit just that suddenly.
Our neighborhood did just fine. No major damage. In fact, most of the immediate area was fine. Iowa got a few tornados out of it. (From our view, we could pick out the cloud that was likely giving them trouble.)
The rest of the week? Rainy and dull.
Today, however, is gorgeous. And I'm almost done packing up so I can hit the road.
My gypsy summer is about to begin.
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