downpour!

Yesterday afternoon, a storm arrived from Utah that gave us some really exciting weather. At about 5pm, thunder and lightning preceded some really hard rain, along with hail! Now, I know this hail was NOTHING compared to Texas hail, but it was still pretty fun to watch, and it wasn't so big that I had to worry about my car. I have plenty of vivid memories of hailstorms in Texas, and I'm sure that's a big part of why I went into atmospheric science in the first place. There were all kinds of crazy thunderstorms during my summers in Fort Worth and Arlington. Also, one of my earlier memories is when my Mom, bro, and I still lived in Fort Worth. There was a big thunderstorm, and it was hailing outside. Mom went outside to grab some of the hail so that my bro and I could get a good look at it, and I was terrified that she would be hurt! Everything turned out fine, of course, and we kept the hail in the freezer for a while after that.

Anyways, the thunderstorms cleared up and it was just mildly cloudy for a bit yesterday early evening, but then they came back with a vengeance once the sun went down. There was plenty of thunder and lightning, so it was a really good show. That let up for a while, but by the time we got up in the morning, it was raining, and it hasn't stopped all day!! It was supposed to maybe be wet, sloppy snow as well, so the rain was really nice. We definitely got a good soaking (at least a couple of inches), and I'm sure things will be nice and green for a while to come.

In other news, Brent's 25th birthday is coming up this Thursday! I am very excited about it, so hopefully he'll like what I've gotten him. Woohoo! I turn 24 next month, and I am fully planning on teasing him about his age, because 25 rounds up to 30, but 24 rounds down to 20! That's not to say that 30 isn't young too... with as fast as my early 20's have gone, I'm sure I'll be at my 30's before I realize it, and I plan on that being plenty young as well. Either way, I can't believe that I am getting to be so much older than the college freshmen I see walking around on campus. I will be 6 years older than next year's incoming freshmen... aaahhh! I'm starting to feel it too... lots of the girls in the 18-20 year old range seem to be wearing leggings and jelly shoes and big shirts. I already did that... in the 80's and early 90's! I can't believe that a trend that I fully participated in when it was cool the first time around is back. It's totally crazy. And as long as I'm on this tangent, I just want to state my official opinion that the 80's look didn't look all that great in the 80's, and it doesn't look any better now. So there!

Anyways, here are some fun pictures of the storm yesterday afternoon. Yay weather!


The flower petals from the tree outside our office went EVERYWHERE.

Downpour!


Zoom in on the hail.