Monday, June 16, 2008

Wild Weather

The weather here has been pretty fierce lately. We have been having some major storms with lots of rain. Thankfully no tornadoes close enough to us to cause problems.

Some of the storms have brought non-stop lightning. The sky is lit up every few seconds and there is a constant roar of thunder. I love watching these storms until they are close enough that the thunder shakes the house.

The rain we have been getting comes down in bursts of flooding rain. The other night we had so much rain that with in a few seconds the drain in our basement patio was blocked by mud. I had to wade through shin high water to unblock it because the water was seeping under the basement door. The Missouri River (a few miles from here) is flooded way above its shores and it isn't even due to crest until tomorrow!

(photo taken by my mom on Saturday)

Last night when I was driving home a hail core went right over my town and my van was pummeled by what we thought at the time was ping pong sized but later found out it was baseball sized hail! I pulled off the road and under some trees when it first started to hail but then when it kept getting bigger the trees weren't stopping it any more and I had my 2 little ones in the back crying and screaming. I was sure that my windshield was going to brake. I had to drive quite a bit in it to find an actual over hang to get under. It was the scariest thing I think I have been through and the sound of the hail hitting the van kept echoing in my head all night!

We have some more storms coming in later this week, which will mean more floods and severe weather for us.