Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again...

Late this afternoon,  weather alerts started to ping on my computer screen and I turned to the TV for local updates.  I could feel my stress level rising as I listened to the forecast and thought, Oh, no, not again! Severe weather was heading our way and while there were no tornadoes expected, we were told to expect winds to 60 mph, golf ball sized hail, lightening, and rain.

Last week, turbulent summer weather had spawned a tornado that leveled many neighborhoods in Springfield, Massachusetts and surrounding suburbs.  I was away from home at the time, getting updates by phone from my son as the storm system moved rapidly across the state.
 
It was a tense time and while we were spared any tornadoes or serious damage where we live, microbursts claimed their share of trees and tree limbs, roof shingles, and lawn furnishings in the area.

The storm moved in quickly and the sky turned black.

As the forecaster was telling us that the weather front would hit our area in an hour to an hour and a half, my son and I heard the winds pick up and sirens start to howl. We had little time to prepare.

We made sure that all four of our dogs were inside and safely downstairs. Within minutes, the sky had turned black and the wind gusts were ripping through the trees and curtains on the deck.

We struggled to remove the canopy top from the frame as cold rain (but mercifully no hail) pummeled us. We watched the trees whipping back and  forth and finally were able to take cover inside as switches of weeping willow whipped across the deck. What scared me the most was when leaves from the tree on the other side of the house came flying over the house, littering the deck.

The trees were blowing wildly with the wind.

After the storm, the deck garden was littered with branches from the neighbor's willow.

Willow leaves, and large clumps of leaves from a tree on the other side of the house were everywhere.

 The storm moved quickly and passed through the area in less than two hours, leaving a trail of downed trees and wires in neighboring communities and in ours. We were once again very fortunate: no power loss, no major damage. Five hours later, the temperature has dropped more than twenty degrees, the humidity has eased, stars are out, and the moon is peeking out from behind scattered clouds. And all is right in our little corner of the world.