Severe Thunderstorms After Catastrophic Flooding

Two lines of severe thunderstorms rolled through our area last night just a couple of days after catastrophic flooding.  This threatened a repeat of the flooding only hours after most of the flooding at receded.  

There is no doubt that there were severe thunderstorms in these two lines of severe weather but it just barely clipped us.  Most of the severe weather was slightly north of us.  We got about an inch of rain and the sky was like a midwestern light show of constant lightning and rumbling thunder.  

I've lived all across the country and I have to say that the most common thunderstorms in the midwest are what would be considered very severe thunderstorms in the northeast.  These common midwestern thunderstorms are ominous with lightning every second or two, heavy downpours, damaging hail, ferocious wind, with constant rumbling of thunder.  Last night, it was easy to tell that this type of weather was in our area but, fortunately, the truly severe storms were just barely north of us.  

I kept a close eye on the skies.  I was looking for rotating, bubbling thunderheads.  I was looking for ominous colors in the clouds and in the light.  At one point, I stepped out on our front deck and my hair stood on end.  The air was charged with static electricity!  I instantly recognized this as a potential lightning strike and quickly stepped back indoors.  When I stepped back outside a few minutes later, the static electricity was gone but the wind had picked up.

Within a few more minutes, it was as dark as night outside but it was still during daylight hours.  We could see the sky flashing at a rate faster than one flash per second and there was the distant sound of thunder constantly rumbling.  

Before any storm cell even hit us...  still no rain worth mentioning, no high winds...  we lost power.  That kept me inside the house for a while as I set up candles, flashlights, power stations (so we could plug in a few LED lamps), and motion-activated lights through the house.  

The rain picked up a bit briefly but we had far worse in the days preceding this storm.  Actually, we only got one inch of rain this time around in total.  No high winds.  No hail.  We did get a nice rumbling lightshow though!  

In between the two lines of storm cells, we had a rainbow across the sky...

Before long, the sky darkened again and the rain started falling from the sky again.  This part of the storm was supposed to be worse but, again, it obviously missed us.  I think this also was north of us.  

Our power was out for about an hour or so.  The power outage, however, was a reminder to keep all of our emergency lights, radios, and power stations fully charged at all times.  Our emergency radio was dead but I was able to use its crank handle to generate power to listen to NOAA Weather.  Once I set up the big power station, I plugged in one of our living room lamps and the radio so we had some music.  You would have thought that the flooding in the previous days would have reminded me to make sure everything was fully charged but I guess I had other concerns.

Actually, one of my concerns was that we were scheduled to have a new furnace installed yesterday.  It was a significant cost and the furnace has been a constant source of trouble, frustration and anxiety this entire calendar year.  Having to spend as much money as purchasing a used car just added to the anxiety and frustration.  I was looking forward to getting this new furnace installed but had serious concerns about hidden expenses like every other home project we've ever done. 

In the end, the furnace was installed by lunchtime.  At this point, I was relieved and I completely forgot about the potential for severe weather again in the coming hours.  

Anyway, we were spared from the worst of the severe thunderstorms last night.  I don't think any more damage was added to the catastrophic damage caused by the flooding just a couple of days ago.  This is all good news.

Oh...  and our new furnace was installed with no fuss and no extra costs!