Saturday 9 June 2007

Storm Approaching


This picture was taken from our terrace about half an hour ago. I'd been hearing the rumble of thunder all afternoon (it'd been been hot and muggy and all day) and stepped out to take a look. The weather here, so close to the mountains, is sometimes unpredictable, which can be extremely annoying. This time, however, the light peeking out from above the mountains and below the storm clouds was quite beautiful. It almost made up for what happened next. I stood on the terrace enjoying the view as the wind picked up, I could hear a wall of rain steadily approaching. At least that's what I thought. It turned out to be not just torrential rain, but hail. Marble-sized hail. In June. I dashed inside and shut the windows, and just in time too. Look what happened shortly afterwards.



The strange thing is I can now see nothing but blue sky out of the office window. Matt has just gone to check the damage in the garden, fingers crossed.

8 comments:

lorenzothellama said...

Wow, that is impressive!
Tortoiseshell and K arrived safely and we are about to tuck into some food. (Pasta bake, roast peppers and tomatoes, tappenade, garlic bread and lots of beer and wine!)
Cheers. Hic.

Unknown said...

Mmm, sounds good.

Ju's little sister said...

Isn't it wonderful, being able to run inside in a storm!

I LOVE, absolutely LOVE the sound of summer thunder in the valley where I grew up. I'd lie awake at night and listen to it. First came the flash of lighteneing, brightening up the room for a split second so that all you saw was white. Then came the initial CRACK! which rolled for a second, or two, or three and more and more as it echoed from mountain to mountain, up one side and across to the other and back again.
It's something I haven't heard since I was little, and that absolutely gorgeous photo of the coming storm reminded me. Thank you for calling up a wonderful memory!

Unknown said...

jls, we got fantastic storms last summer, you could see and hear them approaching from the mountains miles away. The forked lightning against the mountains' silhouettes was visually stunning. I'm hoping for a repeat this year. With three cats and weather like that who needs a telly?

Ju's little sister said...

Raelha, we tended to get sheet lightning about 70-80% of the time, but the forked lightning was spectacular when it did come!

You're right, television is very overrated!

Melody said...

Oooo, I love summer thunderstorms (your first photo is wonderful!). Funnily enough though, we only had a couple this year. When we first moved up here we had a thunderstorm where the lightening and thunder lasted for 8 hours. It was wonderful.

Unknown said...

In Cardiff, I once slept through seven and a half hours of thunderstorm - right overhead too. I woke up at 7.30 in the morning and stayed in bed until it had calmed down. I didn't realise it had been going on for so long until I walked to the uni and realised that everyone who I passed was talking about the storm that had started at middnight and not stopped until 10am. I'll sleep though anything!

Ju's little sister said...

Me too! I was staying with my Godparents as a child and while they lay awake all night listening to the thunder I dreamt my brother was playing the drums!

Didn't wake up though!