Thunderstorms

It took me awhile to leave the apartment this morning because of our saw-toothed grain friends.  I'm glad I at least checked the forecast when it started getting darker and darker so I knew thunderstorms were on their way.  I just thought they weren't coming until the afternoon.  That's what I get for not being able to see the severe weather statements on my blackberry...

 

I left the building and as soon as I hit the sidewalk, I heard thunder to the west.  Loud, booming thunder to the west.  I started racing to the office (speedwalking, not running, for the most part) to attempt to avoid the rapidly approaching storm.  Along the way, I saw the thick grayish-green clouds against the gray-green sky.  I saw a very bright lightning flash followed almost immediately by thunder right overhead.  I walked faster.  The wind started to pick up.  I was more than halfway there.  Thank goodness for all the cars idling in the middle of the street so I could run across the street and walk under the covered part of the sidewalk by the Marriott Marquis.

 

I had one avenue left to go as I stood in Times Square hearing the thundering above us.  I ran across the intersection as soon as it turned to walk, and as soon as I hit the other side of the intersection, felt a big drop explode on my head.  I thought maybe it came from the building, and just kept walking.  Faster.

 

The drops started coming more rapidly.  Huge, soaking raindrops.  Not the little driving raindrops, but the huge ones that are like bubbles filled with water.  Faster and faster.  Why were the tourists slowly stroooolling down the street?!?  I need to get to work!  Before it pours!

 

Half a block away.  It's become a steady barrage of huge, soaking, hard raindrops.  Thank goodness my blue windbreaker is in my hand, and not my backpack.  I throw it over my head and run.  The rain gets harder and harder.  It's hard to see down the street.  I duck under our building's overhang and when I get out, it's like a torrential downpour.  Buckets.  It only took about 60 seconds to accelerate to a torrential downpour.  And it wasn't just any storm.  It was really dark.

 

I get upstairs to my office and you can barely see across the street.  It's like a white screen of rain.  And then the clacking of small hail against the window and bouncing off the windowsill.  Not to mention the dark, ominous sky.

 

If I had battled the saw-toothed grain beetles 2 minutes faster, I wouldn't have been wet at all.  If I had left 30 seconds later or not run (or stopped to take a picture of the gray-green sky, like I contemplated doing), I would have been soaked from head to toe, and not just wet.  That windbreaker wouldn't hold much water and with the way the downpours were coming down, it wouldn't have lasted.  If I had been 5 minutes later, I would have been stuck in the hail.  That would have been craaaa-zy.

 

Now it's a steady rain, but no more torrential downpours, less thunder, and no hail.  It's only about 10 or 15 minutes after that whole mess!  I'm glad I'm inside now.  And I'm glad that there wasn't one more bug in my path this morning to get me stuck in that storm.