Tempestade

I was watching the Weather Channel while working before, and they kept talking about the Midwest and Chicago. It's a big storm day today and the severe weather experts are working overtime. (Then again, it's not just the Midwest - it's snowing in Denver and Boulder!)

They anticipated that the thunderstorms would be here in 30-45 minutes (from the time I watched). Wisconsin had the possibility of tornadoes; we were just going to get some bad thunderstorms from a quick moving line. I looked out the window at the time, but it was kind of bright - could it really pour in 40 minutes?

Short answer? Yes.

I walked out of the living room and walked back in a minute later. It was only a minute but over the course of that minute, it had gotten pretty dark outside. So much so that I had to turn the lights on to read my book, while the minute before it was bright enough to work with just outdoor lighting.

It wasn't a really bad storm (at least I don't think so). It moved really quickly, the rain could have been harder and more plentiful (not that it wasn't pouring) and longer, there could have been more lightning... I've definitely seen worse while in Chicago. But I'm not complaining... it's better for everyone to not have a severe storm, and I still got to watch some great highlights.

I was hoping for better pictures, but here's what I got:

Starting to get dark...


Clouds beginning to move across the lake, really low clouds in the distance


The big cloud is making its presence known


And it's moving really fast!


And out over the lake with long gray cloud trails... this was the big cloud that produced the lightning strikes that I saw but could not photograph (they were awesome)


Hello cloud!


The city is just covered in gray clouds and pouring rain.... I hope the tourist boat I saw going out toward the lake when it started to get dark (no, I don't know why they continued to go out) wasn't stuck out there!


This is only about 10 minutes after the whole thing started, but the highway's pretty wet... and the cars have water wings! :)


20 minutes from bright to bright... there are blue skies from my window again!


But the clouds aren't fully gone (the blue skies are the view out the window, the gray clouds are up above the building)... and there's another wave of thunderstorms set to come through later. I wonder if that will interfere with the fireworks...


And now? Now, it's bright and sunny again. To the point where you might need sunglasses outside. It's only been about 40 minutes since the whole thing started, and according to the radar, the storm's already halfway over Lake Michigan. Fast.

But right now, I've got to get back to warrantless searches and trying to figure out why my Gmail won't connect. I want a Jimmy John's sandwich...