CRITICAL ALERT

Over almost a century and a half this parcel has been occupied by people, it has never been struck by anything more damaging than large hail. But since deciding to make it my home and having several tornadoes sprout from storm clouds a handfull of miles west and north of here ohe month before fleeing the fire the USFS started which burned me out of house and home, probability of one raking over this patch of land looms large in my whatif ponderings.

Last night an emergency alert blared on the handy-dandy phone I keep close by at all times.

So I go outside to watch and listen as the storm front raging to the west rapidly approaches. The pre-storm calm is pleasant yet forboding. Then the wind stirred enough to make the power lines moan in an eerie way which was almost conversational. "Take cover, now.". A silver-blue web of lightning spreading from western horizon to eastern horizon in an almost slow motion manner finally convinced me to heed the moaning wires' sage advice tout suite.

Still, I stood at the door watching and listening, mostly to the trees. They speak volumes to any who listen, and soon they began to sigh, then roar as the outflow boundary arrived here. About an inch and a half of rain fell with some small hail, too, but that was it. No tornadoes. Breathing a long sigh of my own, it was time for sleep before the second storm front arrived.

Only a little rain fell from clouds boiling up ahead of that wave of atmospheric instability, and now cooler air has rendered the night a delightfully perfect after-storm experience to enjoy.