The school opposite our house had switched on all the lights.
In our garden my solar powered lamps began to glow, obviously mistaking the gloom for the onset of night time.
A flash illuminated the room momentarily.......then the unmistakable rumbling of thunder.
I had an appointment in our local town, about a mile and a half away, around 10.50am.
Meanwhile Tiger hid behind the settee, hating thunderstorms.
But what followed wasn't anything like I have ever seen here in all the 30 years living in this house.
I ran to the car, and the rain was sweeping down with such a force that soon the roads were awash, cars using windscreen wipers on full, with full beam headlights. I set off in hope.
My phone rang just as I was parking the car several minutes later. It was the person I was going to see, worried that somehow the storm would have slowed the traffic. As it happened there were not many to be seen.
So, rolling up my trouser legs until they were covered by my long raincoat, I had no choice except to press on having purchased my parking ticket.
The storm was fierce and the wind bending the trees.
I had to cross the main road to reach my destination, this proved hazardous, by now the water had made it like a small river, flowing fairly fast down the hill.
I took a step and my shoes were covered but by this time the sheer bizarreness of it for some reason made me want to laugh! The water came up to my ankles.
I arrived with sopping wet shoes and feet.
And still the water deluged out of the sky....................
By the time I left to go shopping it had eased somewhat, so I decided to venture to the mall.
As I left there about a half hour later, I could see a huge oncoming blackness and thought I'd better head to the car. It was midday, but looked like midnight.
I didn't make it before the next deluge began, even more fierce than the last.
The road was worse than ever and by the time I got to the car park, I was past caring how wet I was, even with a big umbrella.
The last time I saw and experienced anything like that was in Brisbane, Australia, where we were subjected to a tropical monsoon of rain.
I drove home and had to negotiate several areas of flooded road way. As we live on higher ground than the town, the water was running down towards the centre. Cars were creating huge waves which fell on the pavements, and if you happened to be passing, you had no chance!
The storm roared on, crashing and banging till it moved slowly on it's way.
When I reached the railway bridge which spans one of our local roads, being in a slight dip, it was flooded underneath. The only way to pass through was to drive slowly in the middle of the road, and cars approaching there from opposite directions, waited in a queue, because it would have been dangerous to drive immediately one after the other, as the water was displaced making it deeper at either side.
So, I arrived on our drive and breathed a sigh of relief!
Some people were not so fortunate, having their homes and businesses flooded.
Apparently we had a third of a month's (June) rainfall in an hour and a half!
The storms headed North creating chaos in their wake.
Yet, having seen the storm drain covers lifting and water cascading out like fountains, by 4.00pm, the sun was out, it was 24C and the garden plants, although windblown, had benefitted once more from the outpouring skies.
Summer??
Now today, the weather has been kinder, warm, sunny, with a stiff breeze, and yesterday like some passing nightmare. For us, at least.
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| The garden today, Friday, June 29th 2012. |
So, the burning question is............what will happen next?
Who knows!
Even the weather men are apologising for the lack of summer so far, but casting our mind's back, it was only in March and April they were saying if we didn't have significant amounts of rain, drought was a certainty this year!!!
So they had their wish, more than "significant amounts of rain" have fallen, in a short space of time, and our rivers are overflowing, the underground aquivers are replenished, and all is tickety boo! You think?
In the words of our two well known old-school comedians,
" Bring me sunshine................"
BBC weather site 29th June 2012:
April to June this year has been the wettest second quarter in the UK since records began in 1910.
The figure was confirmed on a second day of disruption after torrential rain doused parts of the country leaving thousands without power.
Transport and schools were also affected after Wales, the Midlands, north-east England, Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland were deluged.
Even without the latest storms, this is the second wettest June since 1910.
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