This has not been a normal summer for us in South Florida and, in all truthfulness, it has been so long since I can recall a "normal" summer that I’ve quite forgotten what one is. Back in the early eighties normal was sunshine everyday with a guaranteed daily down pour which usually broke some time between noon and three in the afternoon...you know, that time of day when you're trying to leave the office for a quick bite of lunch or to run a lunch break errand?
For several years we’ve experience drought conditions and well below average rainfall and it seems that this summer has made a valiant attempt to rectify this discrepancy. So many dark, cloudy wet days that I find myself checking my feet to make sure they're not morphing into ones that match Donald Duck's.
This past week we had a real cloud burst, what we used to call in southern California; "A gully washer". Accumulated close to 6 inches in an hour. Half-way through the deluge our local weather station issued flood warnings. Well I guess better late than never.
Photo below...Just another ditch filled with rain water. Too bad there wasn't a duck floating around in it, would have made a cute photo.
Photo below...Our neighbor's pond has reached maximum capacity and is now coming under the fence into our property. Hey, now we can say we have waterfront property, at least until it all dries out.
Photo below...Remember how our neighbor across the street from us worked to clear the brush from some of his property ? Looks like he's got a nice mud hole right now...or lake. Don't think he's going to be running that bulldozer today !
Photo below...It's a bit hard to see, but the water is actually running off our neighbor's land, filling their ditch and flowing across the road into the ditch on our side of the street. Amazing how water seeks it's own level.
photo below...another view of the rain water run off. Notice the small rapids in the middle of the street ? They show up in the bottom right corner of photo below.
As I took these photos it was so dark outside that my camera insisted upon using its flash. Not sure that tiny flash helped to lighten the whole outdoors, but if it made my camera happy then why not?
I hope none came in your house! We have a had a very unusual wet August in Oklahoma. Usually not a drop all month. I video taped a stream flowing thru my yard this week!
ReplyDeleteI hope you'll stop by my blog and enter my WIN IT-Wednesday giveaway. This week it's a retty green necklace.
http://christiecottage.blogspot.com
We have had the opposite here in Vancouver, a very dry and hot summer, so it is causing a lot of forrest fires not far from here. Global warming is making weather everywhere super crazy!!!
ReplyDeleteWow! nice post and very nice pictures.
ReplyDeleteYou have captured the mood of rain and excitement very well. I love it!
On a seperate note I wish it would rain here in Az too.....
Not that I want to see anyone flood, but I sure wish some of that could have come west here to Texas. We need rain so badly, it's not even funny anymore. I'm glad the inside of your house stayed dry!
ReplyDeleteChristieCottage - I always love visiting your blog and the giveaway looks fan-tab-ulous ! :)
ReplyDeleteCabin+Cub - No it's not normal for Vancouver to be that hot and dry. Hope your get some rain soon...and the nice, well behaved rain, not the come down in 50 gallon buckets all in one fell swoop kind.
ReplyDeleteSujata - Thanks for the compliment. I still find myself wishing I could take photos like the people who have photo blogs, but that takes years of practice and a very good, very expensive camera.
AlyGatr (and Sujata too) - Funny thing about rain, seems we either get too much of it or not enough. Would be lovely if Mother Nature would somehow dish it out evenly. =D
Oh yikes! Climate change is such an interesting and bizarre thing. We have had an exceptionally soggy summer too, then 2 weeks of 95+, now its 77 everyday like we're in San Diego, not Boston. Hope you dry out soon & the pond doesn't make it to your neighbor's back door (or your side door)!
ReplyDelete