Friday, July 22, 2016

Skywatch Friday 157

To say we had some wild weather here last night would be a gross understatement. Thankfully no tornadoes, but we did have severe thunderstorms that brought torrential rains, high winds and flash flooding. First, we were under an excessive heat warning all day yesterday, and are so again today. At 5 pm yesterday, it was 93F with a heat index of 107F. As the storms moved in from the northwest, the temperature dropped twenty degrees in one hour. By 6 pm, it was so dark outside, you'd have thought it was three hours later than it was. The rains hit about 6:30 pm. Not a soft soaking, but a heavy downpour. It came down in sheets, making it difficult to see very far in front of you, and causing many local streets to flood. Opening the back door of our building was near impossible with the wind and rain pushing against it.

About 7 pm, I was sitting in my living room, which faces south away from the storm. I had turned off the AC and opened the front window several inches so I could smell and listen to the rain. Plus, I wanted to be able to hear any storm sirens if they sounded (which, thankfully, they did not). I was talking to a friend when I heard a sharp cracking noise -- and looked out my front window in time to see the tree in our front yard topple. Between the torrential rains completely saturating the ground and high wind gusts whipping between the buildings, it didn't stand a chance and was completely uprooted. How it missed the cars parked along the curb is anyone's guess!

I saw a lot of downed branches and large tree limbs en route to work this morning, as well as a few other trees that were uprooted during the storm and one carport that had it's roof blown off. There will be a lot of clean up going on across central and southern Wisconsin today, as well as southern Minnesota, northern Iowa and northern Illinois. What's more, we could see more of the same over the next few days -- high heat and humidity during the day, storms in the afternoon or evening. Fun!

Anyway, here are a few photos taken last night and this morning. The sunset pics were taken near the end of the storm, about 8:45 pm. As the storm started to quiet, I went to check the back of the building, to see if any trees or branches were down back there -- thankfully, only a few small branches, nothing major -- when I spied this bit of color between the buildings.




Looking north about 6 pm, as storms moved in.


Taken shortly after 7 pm from front
porch, during height of the storm.


Sunset, looking northwest about 8:45 pm,
as storm started to quiet.




Looking at these, you'd never guess how violent
the weather had been for hours before sunset.


Taken this morning from driveway.


It looks like it took at least one branch of the curbside tree with it.


It narrowly missed the nearer red car, and another that was
parked behind it. Seriously -- not a scratch on either car. 



LINKING TO: Skywatch Friday





8 comments:

Alice Audrey said...

That poor tree, and lucky car owners.

Talk about dark! It was like a full eclipse. Those must have been really thick clouds.

Dancin Fool said...

Very moody skies! I am very happy there was no significant damage but sorry you lost a tree.

thomas said...

the sky looks angry here with all the uprooted trees

Irene said...

Wow, Great captures of the moody clouds. Happy that no one got hurt & no serious damage.

Light and Voices said...

Our power went off from 4PM until 7PM on Wednesday. Then on Thursday we encountered high winds, rain,thunder and lightening plus the power went off from 4:30 AM until around 4:30 PM. Four weeks in a row now we have had these storms roll in and roll out taking down trees and damaging what it can in the area but during the day we have sunny skies.

Great captures. I am glad you are safe.
JM, Illinois-U.S.A.

Beth @ PlantPostings said...

Great photos of the sky! That was a wicked storm, wasn't it?! It blew over a few of my tall plants, but the huge Oak trees (surprisingly) were fine. I noticed quite a few trees down in the Arb and the neighborhood along Seminole Hwy. bordering the Arb. One house had at least two huge trees down--so what was a shady garden is now a sunny one! It's nice to know, however, that we'll have a cool-off next week!

Heather said...

Alice: Yes, there were really thick, dark clouds. Same thing Saturday afternoon -- dark as 9 o'clock at night at 2 in the afternoon. Landlord was busy Friday -- tree was already sectioned and stacked along the curb when I got home that night.

Dancin Fool: Thank you -- we were very lucky in this area that most damage was downed trees and power lines, very little structural damage.

Thomas: Angry would be an understatement. That storm was wicked!. I usually love storms, but this one even had me feeling a bit unnerved.

Heather said...

Thanks, Irene!

JM: Sounds like you got the storms that missed us Wednesday, with an even more intense followup on Thursday. Sorry to hear you've been experiencing them for four weeks now. :-\

Beth: A lot of trees were knocked down in the Arb during the storm two weeks ago, and I'm sure many more were toppled last week as well. I haven't been up there in a while, between my work schedule and the high temps. Maybe this next weekend. Was also hoping to get out to Pope Farms to see the sunflowers this year, but it figures they'd peak during a week when I was too busy to get out there. :-\