Yesterday's Thunderstorms

As you may have read, yesterday we had some crazy weather here. Crazy is probably the right word...

 

For those who aren't aware:

Yesterday, we had a sudden thunderstorm front pass through, where the weather went from sunny and mild, to suddenly storm + overcast, with dark ominous clouds, which quickly turned into thunder + lighting + hail + heavy rain (with surface flooding). Most affected were all the folks who had headed out to the final day of the A&P show  (i.e. farm folk bring their animals to town, to let us city people see their critters + lifestyle) and/or the horse races (i.e. where ladies dress up in fancy dresses, and consume too much wine) - as both of these events are held outdoors, and in the areas where the most hail fell. Large hailstones I might add apparently... From the photos I've seen, it was such a hailstorm, that it looked like snow had fallen out that way - it was everywhere, and enough for folks to make little snowmen (oh... *ahem*  "hail people") out of that white stuff!

 

Unfortunately, it seems we missed most of the most fun/exciting parts!  

https://www.flickr.com/photos/aligorith/albums/72177720330356928

At the time, we were having lunch at one of our favourite restaurants out near the airport, and actually looking out towards the airport / runway direction.

Near the start of the meal, my phone went off TWICE in quick succession with "Severe Thunderstorm" warnings - the first saying 2:45, and the second more urgently amended to 2/2:15! Oh... we might want to stay in here for a while until that clears eh?

Looking out, the clouds were certainly shifting fast, with dark lumpies one moment, then clouds fading to dullness very quickly. Not very much else really seemed to happen, apart from one blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment where I swear I could've seen a bolt of lighting streaking down the sky in the general direction of the airfield.

Then the blue sky started to peak through!  And before you knew it, flights were taking off again!

It was only on our way back out that we started encountering some "moderate" rain... but strangely, all the gutters we passed were all overflowing torrents of rain! (This happened city-wide... from west to east!)

Turns out out east, the flows were even stronger, with lots of surface flooding. The rivers were all also looking rather full.

Oh, and while there were blue skies, that only lasted briefly for the time we were out east visiting some shops out there. By the time we got back to the car, the rain was setting in again, and some of the water flows ramping right back up again!