Windy Storm Followed by Beautiful Sunset

Sometimes a good rainfall requires enduring a little bit of wind, but I dont think any of us figured it would last as long as it did Thursday afternoon, nor get as strong as it did. Missy and I photographed some of the wild looking clouds before it hit, from the railroad overpass on Hwy D….earlier in the day, it was reported that a cloud of hail was on approach to the area, so I photographed it from the north side of the west overpass….

00 Hail Cloud Spotted

 

…and then a bit later in the day, as the more severe storm began approaching the area, Missy and I drove over to the railroad bridge on Hwy D near the police station and photographed it on approach to town…

00A  Wild Looking Clouds on Approach

 

00C Beginning To Wonder Now

When we saw this, I wondered if I was watching a wall cloud form in front of me and began thinking maybe it was time to skedaddle back to the house, but I decided to stick around a few extra minutes and see what else would happen…

00D Okay Is This a Wall Cloud Forming

 

00G Someone Cut Those Trees Down

I kept moving back and forth about twenty feet, wished someone would cut those trees down so the view would be much clearer….

 

00J No Idea What Is Coming

…then moved a little further up and had a much better viewpoint, but still wasnt sure what I was seeing here…

00K Maybe We Ought To Head Home Now

…but as it was, it turned out to be a roll cloud…not a wall cloud…and roll clouds occasionally are out in front ahead of some severe storms…this I learned from one of my rockhound friends who is also a storm chaser and meterologist…she said they can be quite scarey looking, and believe me this one was….

00M  No Worries Just a Cloud

…and it became even more pronounced as the storm drew nearer…you can see the storm behind it gathering force in the next photo…

00P  Huge Storm Coming In

 

00R Getting Closer

..and at this point, I decided the storm was very near and I headed home…and the wind was picking up dramatically, as seen in the next photo of the flag flying at one of our factories on the north side of the interstate…

00S  Getting Windy

 After arriving back home, at times Missy and I headed for the basement when we saw the trees bending halfway to the ground, knowing that we were getting strong winds then…and I know we went to the basement three times only to return three times as well…my neighbor Glenn, across the street, was braver than us, staying on his enclosed front porch with a birds eye view of everything in front. In fact, he told me the next day that he saw the big limb rip off my front yard tree, fifty feet up, and come crashing down during the height of the storm, landing in the middle of Elmont Road in front of my house. Luckily no one was driving thru at the time it came down and a few minutes later, he observed some guy stop in the middle of the road and move it to my sidewalk, getting soaked in the process…the way the rain was being blown at force, horizontally down my street, I would imagine he was soaked the second he stepped out of his car…here is the limb, seven inches around at the base of it….

01 Aftermath Limb in Yard

..and on impact, a limb tore away from it and skittered across the street on the wet surface and smacked Glenn`s white car as well..doing no damage luckily….and  I lost a few smaller limbs as well that blew down the street a little ways as well…

02 Sharing The Wealth

…while just a few blocks away, four trees came down in the front yard of St Anthony`s Church on Springfield Avenue….

04 Trees Down St Anthonys

..and our city park across the street and a few blocks north of me, lost a few trees as well….this one is fairly young age wise and blew right over…

06 Tree Down City Park

…while this one, an older tree in a line of older trees, had two big sections ripped off the large trunk by the winds, also along the Springfield Avenue side….

07 Tree Down City Park

 

08 Tree Down City Park

…and a couple of hours later, we were graced with a fantastic sunset following a horrific storm….I caught it while walking Missy at the City Park….

09 Sunset After

 

10 Sunset After Storm

 

11 Sunset After Storm

 

 

13 Sunset After Storm

…and then went down our street a few blocks to where the new Elmont Road Bridge crosses I-44 to see even more of the pretty sunset with spectacular rimlighting of the clouds…

14 Elmont Bridge Sunset

 

16 Elmont Bridge Sunset Rimlight

 

17 Elmont Bridge Sunset Rimlight

 

19 Elmont Bridge Sunset Rimlight

…and I was so taken with the rimlit clouds that I almost forgot about that other big cloud on the right side….

21 Elmont Bridge Sunset Rimlight

…so now I was back and forth from the rimlit clouds to the impressive cloud on the right….stayed there til the sunlight and colors faded….

22 Elmont Bridge Sunset Rimlight

 

26 Elmont Bridge Sunset Rimlight

 

28 Elmont Bridge Sunset Rimlight

 

32 Elmont Bridge Sunset Rimlight

…and when those colors start fading, they go fast….

33 Elmont Bridge Sunset Rimlight

 

34 Elmont Road Bridge

 

35 Elmont Road Bridge

 

36 Elmont Road Bridge

..I spotted some water puddles across the street and shot the one above there, to get a little water reflection….

37 Elmont Road Bridge

A nice ending to the day….

Thunderstorms Rarely Appreciated

Thunderstorms are rarely appreciated but one was definitely a sight for sore eyes last night as we have been without rain for so long and things are so dry and hot that most around here would have probably settled for anything. As it was, the temps quickly cooled and we had about twenty minutes of solid rain that was welcome relief. I snapped a few photos after supper at Cracker Barrel first from the parking lot in front as the rain cloud approached ahead of the thunder and lightning….

01 Much Needed Rain

02 Much Needed Rain Coming In

….and then from up on the hill above and behind it in the ball diamond parking lot….

03 Sunset Rain Storm

I was even lucky enough to capture a lightning bolt….

07 Lightning Bolt

THANK YOU GOD for the rain !!!!!