Well, That Was Something
I know I said I wasn't going to post here anymore, but then a thing happened. The news this morning said we got three tornadoes yesterday but that they were all very far away from me. Like, 'a two hour drive' far. But I don't know how else to explain what happened to me if it didn't involve a (very weak, admittedly) tornado.
I was driving home from work yesterday evening and it had been raining for most of my commute. Then I was driving along, looking at the clouds and thinking, 'That looks like a wall cloud. And there are bright white clouds behind it. This looks exactly like the spot stormchasers always pick to film from. I don't think I like it here.'
The problem was that it was rush hour and I was driving through an area that was mostly one story strip malls and residential neighborhoods. There weren't any big, substantial buildings or parking garages to shelter in anywhere. I really didn't like where I was, but there was no way to outrun anything in dense traffic, so I found myself turning in to the nearest mall and pulling around the side to put the building and one car between me and the clouds I didn't like. My intention was to go inside one of the stores and hope the employees had a shelter area for themselves and customers. I didn't get that far.
I only had time to start opening my car door when the skies opened up in a torrential downpour. I thought I'd give it a minute or two to see if the rain slacked off before I got out because that's how rain often works around here. Instead it got worse. And worse. And then the hail started. And then the hail got worse. And then the wind kicked up and took the awning right off the building in front of me, ripping the metal brackets right out of the brick. The awning sailed over my car, bounced off the car next to me, then landed behind my bumper.
The red car is mine. There was an awning there when I pulled in.
Then things got even worse. The hail got really intense. And then suddenly I could see the air. Like, in an instant the air turned solid grey and I couldn't see past the edge of my car. The wind was rocking my car. Then I heard a roaring on my left. It passed behind me from left to right, and then disappeared off to the right. As soon as the roaring stopped, suddenly the air was clear again. A minute later the hail tapered to a stop. A minute after that the rain stopped, too. I took this picture standing at my rear bumper.
That's the awning on the left. It didn't land there. A mall employee was kind enough to drag it over there because it was blocking me in. The tree on the left had been upright when I pulled in. If you look closely, the greenery in the road there isn't a branch. It's an entire tree that was snapped off at the base and dropped in the street. All of the parking lot signs--the ones on posts set into concrete bases--had blown over, and there were so many leaves on the ground that it looked like fall.
I was deeply relieved at having dodged that bullet. Then I got home to this.
That's the lake street in front of my apartment building and the east entrance to the parking lot. The west entrance was above the water line, so I was able to pull in and park.
I was going to post about this last night, but my power was out. It was only a small outage and only my neighborhood was affected, but we had training thunderstorms all evening, so I didn't get my power back until midnight. That was no fun. It was too hot to be without air conditioning yesterday, and I couldn't even open my windows because of the rain. And I also never knew when the next thunderstorm was coming or how bad it would be because I couldn't check the TV or internet weather.
I just can't believe there were no confirmed tornadoes anywhere near me.
I was driving home from work yesterday evening and it had been raining for most of my commute. Then I was driving along, looking at the clouds and thinking, 'That looks like a wall cloud. And there are bright white clouds behind it. This looks exactly like the spot stormchasers always pick to film from. I don't think I like it here.'
The problem was that it was rush hour and I was driving through an area that was mostly one story strip malls and residential neighborhoods. There weren't any big, substantial buildings or parking garages to shelter in anywhere. I really didn't like where I was, but there was no way to outrun anything in dense traffic, so I found myself turning in to the nearest mall and pulling around the side to put the building and one car between me and the clouds I didn't like. My intention was to go inside one of the stores and hope the employees had a shelter area for themselves and customers. I didn't get that far.
I only had time to start opening my car door when the skies opened up in a torrential downpour. I thought I'd give it a minute or two to see if the rain slacked off before I got out because that's how rain often works around here. Instead it got worse. And worse. And then the hail started. And then the hail got worse. And then the wind kicked up and took the awning right off the building in front of me, ripping the metal brackets right out of the brick. The awning sailed over my car, bounced off the car next to me, then landed behind my bumper.
The red car is mine. There was an awning there when I pulled in.
Then things got even worse. The hail got really intense. And then suddenly I could see the air. Like, in an instant the air turned solid grey and I couldn't see past the edge of my car. The wind was rocking my car. Then I heard a roaring on my left. It passed behind me from left to right, and then disappeared off to the right. As soon as the roaring stopped, suddenly the air was clear again. A minute later the hail tapered to a stop. A minute after that the rain stopped, too. I took this picture standing at my rear bumper.
That's the awning on the left. It didn't land there. A mall employee was kind enough to drag it over there because it was blocking me in. The tree on the left had been upright when I pulled in. If you look closely, the greenery in the road there isn't a branch. It's an entire tree that was snapped off at the base and dropped in the street. All of the parking lot signs--the ones on posts set into concrete bases--had blown over, and there were so many leaves on the ground that it looked like fall.
I was deeply relieved at having dodged that bullet. Then I got home to this.
That's the lake street in front of my apartment building and the east entrance to the parking lot. The west entrance was above the water line, so I was able to pull in and park.
I was going to post about this last night, but my power was out. It was only a small outage and only my neighborhood was affected, but we had training thunderstorms all evening, so I didn't get my power back until midnight. That was no fun. It was too hot to be without air conditioning yesterday, and I couldn't even open my windows because of the rain. And I also never knew when the next thunderstorm was coming or how bad it would be because I couldn't check the TV or internet weather.
I just can't believe there were no confirmed tornadoes anywhere near me.