Friday, August 29, 2008

What a storm!

Last night we had an incredible storm! My mother in law called me to say that she and Daddy were outside on their back porch to watch the storm come in and it looked like Tempe was having a light show. The weather reported over 10,000 lightning strike in an hour. Samuel and I went outside for a while to watch and listen and seriously the thunder didn't stop for hours. It was one continual roll of thunder for as long as we listened. The weather also reported that some areas of the valley received over 1.48 inches of rain (Officially, the National Weather Service reported 5.48 inches year total at Sky Harbor International Airport. Last year, 0.74" fell for the entire monsoon season.) and had wind gusts of 100 miles per hour in Tempe. I got up this morning to survey the damages and to my surprise it wasn't too bad. We usually have a down limb or two or parts of the barn missing, but this time it was only the shade for the area right outside my father's house that was downed. The rain was seriously so unusual that I called my father to ask him if he was OK out in his house by himself. It sounded like it was raining baseballs. Every once in a while I would open the door and look to see if it was hail but I couldn't see any and then too at those time I would look at the trees and there would be absolutely no movement in them. It was crazy! But after the storm we have been blessed with a most beautiful sun rise. I tried to capture a picture, I don't know if it will translate but here I have tried. I checked the weather report for today and it looks like we are going to have humidity around 77% and a high around 101. Crazy! I sure hope that all of our family and friends that live out of town have a wonderful day, I know that I will.

3 comments:

Jenny Lynn said...

That picture of the sunrise is gorgeous.. my question is, what are you doing up so early??
It is going to be more stormy and more beautiful this weekend... because Shawn and I are going out of town. Of corse!

Chantal said...

Wow I am also surprised that you were up for the sunrise! Its beautiful.
I love thunderstorms, and miss them, I don't think I have ever heard thunder in SD. I bet it was really awesome to hear constant thunder, for so long!
I am glad everybody and every thing was ok. Poor swing.

Clarissa B. said...

it rained pretty good here and it was likea strobe light outside out window all night! it was pretty fun!