Watching the storm
02/06/15 05:15
Last night I woke and wandered about the house for a few minutes in the middle of the night. The moon was full, or nearly so. Tonight is the full moon. The sky was clear so the moonlight made it easy to see the deer grazing peacefully in the yard. The birds weren’t started with their chatter, so it was very quiet. There was no wind, but the evening cool could be felt at the open windows. It was the kind of night when one is tempted to talk a walk or go paddling. I resisted the urge, knowing that I have a day’s work ahead of me and soon was back in bed sleeping soundly.
It was very different than the scene had been 15 or so miles to our north earlier in the evening. I grew up watching the clouds. With parents who were pilots, we learned to read the sky and to pay attention to the weather. We definitely had some interesting - and wild clouds last night. I had been working in the library and had the window shades drawn to make the room dim for the computer monitor when the civil defense sirens started wailing sometime between 8:30 and 9:00. Like all of the rest of the neighbors, before seeking shelter, I went outside to look at the sky. It was evident that the center of the big storm was passing to our north. Although we watched the clouds from the safety of our front porch, it didn’t even rain at our place last night.
But I knew there was significant precipitation - and most likely hail - off to the north. The most violent storms go beyond dark clouds - the dark blue turns to black and then to a kind of a green color. Those green clouds almost always produce hail. I checked the scanner and radio as the storm progressed. There was plenty of violent weather as the system parked over Piedmont and Summerset. According to the highway patrol, over a foot of water covered the Interstate, which was closed for a time, backing up traffic. Hail the size of golf balls - and some stones as big as softballs was reported. I’m sure that we will find lots of reports of damage as the day unfolds. There are a couple of large RV dealers with millions of dollars of inventory sitting out in the open on their lots that are right in the area that was hammered by the storm.
It is often that way in the hills. A storm is pelting one part of the hills while another part is dry and we are given the opportunity to watch the storm from its edges. There is something about the hills that produces some really big thunderheads and then conditions where the storm sort of stalls and sits in the same place for quite a while. It is amazing, when you are near or in the midst of such a storm that the wind can be blowing quite hard, yet that wind is all circulating within the storm, and there is little wind aloft to blow the cloud on to another location.
And after the storm comes the calm. The peaceful mood that I witnessed in the middle of the night was being shared with the places that had been at the heart of the big storm just a few hours earlier.
Again and again we are reminded that there are many forces in this world that are beyond our power to control. The hills have been teaching people for many generations about the power of storms and the danger of flooding. Having witnessed the aftermath of Black Hills floods, I was happy to find a house near the top of the hill when we moved into the area and I have continued to appreciate our vantage point to watch the storms roll by.
Of course we can have the hail hit our place as likely as it falls in other places. There are a few storm tracks that have a history of more hail, but there is no place in the hills where there hasn’t been enough hail to cause a boom in the roofing business for months. We say that in the hills there are only two types of cars: ones that have been hailed on and ones that are going to be hailed on. The same could be said for roofs, for RVs, and for other objects that spend time out of doors. And we’ve seen hail that takes out skylights and windshields and leaves vehicles and homes vulnerable to more damage from the rains that accompany the hailstones.
It is a fascinating phenomena as long as you are safe. Which is why they blow the civil defense sirens. They are supposed to motivate us to seek shelter.
Years ago, when we lived in North Dakota we used to say that our local customs were a bit different from the National Weather Service alerts. A severe thunderstorm WATCH means that the conditions in the atmosphere are favorable for a severe storm. Citizens are advised to have a plan to seek shelter if the weather gets more intense. A storm WARNING means that everyone rushes out into the middle of the street to see if they can see a funnel cloud. Of course it doesn’t really mean that - it means that the storm is imminent and that you should seek shelter immediately. But it always seemed like our neighbors would head outside to look at the clouds before seeking shelter - and before long I found that I was imitating their behavior.
I’ve seen a few tornadoes, but I’ve never been in a place where one has struck. We’ve lived in places where tornadoes are much less likely than some parts of the country. But severe weather can happen anywhere and it is prudent to be prepared for the possibility of violent storms no matter where you live.
And after the storm, the calm will return and soon it is easy to remember why you moved to that neighborhood in the first place. In the meantime, there will be plenty of work to clean up the damage from the weather.
It was very different than the scene had been 15 or so miles to our north earlier in the evening. I grew up watching the clouds. With parents who were pilots, we learned to read the sky and to pay attention to the weather. We definitely had some interesting - and wild clouds last night. I had been working in the library and had the window shades drawn to make the room dim for the computer monitor when the civil defense sirens started wailing sometime between 8:30 and 9:00. Like all of the rest of the neighbors, before seeking shelter, I went outside to look at the sky. It was evident that the center of the big storm was passing to our north. Although we watched the clouds from the safety of our front porch, it didn’t even rain at our place last night.
But I knew there was significant precipitation - and most likely hail - off to the north. The most violent storms go beyond dark clouds - the dark blue turns to black and then to a kind of a green color. Those green clouds almost always produce hail. I checked the scanner and radio as the storm progressed. There was plenty of violent weather as the system parked over Piedmont and Summerset. According to the highway patrol, over a foot of water covered the Interstate, which was closed for a time, backing up traffic. Hail the size of golf balls - and some stones as big as softballs was reported. I’m sure that we will find lots of reports of damage as the day unfolds. There are a couple of large RV dealers with millions of dollars of inventory sitting out in the open on their lots that are right in the area that was hammered by the storm.
It is often that way in the hills. A storm is pelting one part of the hills while another part is dry and we are given the opportunity to watch the storm from its edges. There is something about the hills that produces some really big thunderheads and then conditions where the storm sort of stalls and sits in the same place for quite a while. It is amazing, when you are near or in the midst of such a storm that the wind can be blowing quite hard, yet that wind is all circulating within the storm, and there is little wind aloft to blow the cloud on to another location.
And after the storm comes the calm. The peaceful mood that I witnessed in the middle of the night was being shared with the places that had been at the heart of the big storm just a few hours earlier.
Again and again we are reminded that there are many forces in this world that are beyond our power to control. The hills have been teaching people for many generations about the power of storms and the danger of flooding. Having witnessed the aftermath of Black Hills floods, I was happy to find a house near the top of the hill when we moved into the area and I have continued to appreciate our vantage point to watch the storms roll by.
Of course we can have the hail hit our place as likely as it falls in other places. There are a few storm tracks that have a history of more hail, but there is no place in the hills where there hasn’t been enough hail to cause a boom in the roofing business for months. We say that in the hills there are only two types of cars: ones that have been hailed on and ones that are going to be hailed on. The same could be said for roofs, for RVs, and for other objects that spend time out of doors. And we’ve seen hail that takes out skylights and windshields and leaves vehicles and homes vulnerable to more damage from the rains that accompany the hailstones.
It is a fascinating phenomena as long as you are safe. Which is why they blow the civil defense sirens. They are supposed to motivate us to seek shelter.
Years ago, when we lived in North Dakota we used to say that our local customs were a bit different from the National Weather Service alerts. A severe thunderstorm WATCH means that the conditions in the atmosphere are favorable for a severe storm. Citizens are advised to have a plan to seek shelter if the weather gets more intense. A storm WARNING means that everyone rushes out into the middle of the street to see if they can see a funnel cloud. Of course it doesn’t really mean that - it means that the storm is imminent and that you should seek shelter immediately. But it always seemed like our neighbors would head outside to look at the clouds before seeking shelter - and before long I found that I was imitating their behavior.
I’ve seen a few tornadoes, but I’ve never been in a place where one has struck. We’ve lived in places where tornadoes are much less likely than some parts of the country. But severe weather can happen anywhere and it is prudent to be prepared for the possibility of violent storms no matter where you live.
And after the storm, the calm will return and soon it is easy to remember why you moved to that neighborhood in the first place. In the meantime, there will be plenty of work to clean up the damage from the weather.