Thursday, June 13, 2013

Derecho

The kids were still asleep.  My breakfast was half-eaten when a sound intruded on the quiet around me.  I sat still for a minute, alert.  Within seconds, the weather went from cloudy and peaceful to uproarious.

I stood up and went to the window, where I saw trees bowed from the force of the wind. 

I couldn't help myself.  I wanted to know what it felt like.  I opened the door.

It's a very strange feeling, going from complete calm to complete chaos in one step.





For 20 minutes that wind howled, and just as abruptly as it began, it stopped.  Calm and peaceful reign once again.

Hubby called a bit later and asked if we had any bad weather.  The north side of Indy was pelted with up to 4 inches of rain.  We received next to none.

It was then that he told me of the rare derecho.  It must be rare, seeing as how I've lived in the Midwest almost my entire life and never heard of it.  (And spellcheck has currently underlined it.) In short, it is a "land hurricane", and there was a watch out for it in our neck of the fields.  Word is still out if that is what occurred, but I'm going to say, "No.  It wasn't."  (What, you didn't know I was a weather expert? (I'm not.))

Weather simply fascinates me.  I remember sitting in our garage when we were young, watching storms rage through the neighborhood.  I was mesmerized by the fierce lightening, the booms of thunder, and the steady splashing of the rain.

The adrenaline really gets rushing when the lightening hits right on top of you, so there is no warning when, a millisecond later, the thunder scares you right out of your seat, the vibrations of it all tearing through you.

But, the storm has passed.  The kids are outside playing.  It is the long-awaited "camp day" in which they spend the entire day in their forts.  They have drug all manner of supplies, including (most importantly) the first-ever box of Pop-tarts allowed in our house, out to their little dens. 

It should be a nice, calm day.

Have a lovely day, yourselves!

19 comments:

  1. Wow, crazy! I love a good thunderstorm, too. As long as no damage is done. :) I am excited to hear how the camp out goes!!

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    1. I'm hoping to have a post about the campout soon!

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  2. Adrenaline?! I don't have any of that in big storms.... just pure unadulterated terror that weakens me like kryptonite. I had my blankets over my head and my fingers in my ears. We had one siren go off in the evening and then a big thunderstorm in the middle of the night. And I did NOT want to go outside just to see what it felt like...lol. Glad you are safe. :)

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    1. Don't worry, I'm no crazy storm chaser. I stayed on the porch so I could duck back inside if things got too hairy.

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  3. Last year an apocolyotic derecho hit and causes mOst of our city to be out Power for about5 days. Fascinating things can happen with weather!

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    1. You heard of it!? Well, I guess they had to explain what it was that took power out for that long. Sounds miserable.

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  4. It just missed us yesterday. I was obsessively checking weather forecasts all day and anticipating the storm of a lifetime and then it never happened. I will never get used to the Midwest.

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    1. The kids were very disappointed, as they were supposed to camp out the day before. With the storms coming, we told them they had to postpone. Although, the look on their faces when the wind started blowing would have been funny.

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  5. I have never, never, ever heard of a derecho. Sometimes, I think the weather people make stuff up because they have no idea what just happened.

    Pop Tarts are disgusting. Your kids haven't missed out on anything.

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    1. I wouldn't be surprised.

      Oh, but the frosted brown sugar? Yeah, I don't like them as much as I used to.

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  6. That sounds like fun :) Loved the pics. Poptarts are AWESOME

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  7. There's just something so primal about a good wind, isn't there. It always gets my blood up.

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  8. Oh I love a good storm too. That was part of my motivation to move to Arizona many years ago.. the summer monsoons are so dramatic, they are my mid-afternoon free entertainment!

    Love the pictures of the trees blowing in the force of the wind.

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  9. I am the very same way about weather! When Hugo blew through in 1989, I went out..well, until the winds got over 90ish mph then I came in speedy quick. I mean, I'm fascinated but not stupid. LOL

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  10. Wow! I've never heard of that before! But, I'm not sure if I would recognize it if it came because the wind is extremely tempermental where we live anyway - I mean completely psychotic. That's probably why no one fixes their hair out here, unless they're going to church, and then you have to have a rock-solid hairspray in your beauty arsenal. Fun post!

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  11. I learned a new word here today! Sounds a bit scary, but still exhilarating. I love the raw power of the wind... unless it is tearing apart houses and yards. We had one like that a week ago, we escaped with minor mess to clean up but some houses on our road sustained damage in the freak windstorm that passed through.

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  12. What?! Derecho?! Land Hurricane?! What the...?!

    This sounds marvelous! I've never heard of such a thing, and you just experienced one (though your years and wisdom as a weather analysis says otherwise).

    Derecho was outside your door and you just said... "suck it"... and stepped out into it. I'm super jealous... and a bit concerned what you would do during a tornado lol I'm also concerned what I would do during a tornado, having wanted to experience one in a time frame of my life I would actually remember it.

    Were the animals freaking out at all?

    Jak at The Cryton Chronicles & Dreams in the Shade of Ink

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Thank you for taking the time to tell me what you're thinking!