Relative Something

We experienced wild weather yesterday evening, which is becoming more normal with each successive occurrence. Just as we were getting ready to head out to a local restaurant for dinner, the unexpected sound of thunder rumbled in the sky. A quick check of the radar revealed a small squall forming out of nothing.

We scrambled to get into the car before the fat, early drops became a soaking shower. As we drove toward Hayward, the wet road told a story of a significant downpour that must have just happened moments before. The combination of the whopping dose of precipitation and the large areas of wide open sky around the closest bursting cloud produced the widest bands of rainbow colors any of us had ever seen.

As entertaining as that was, we were soon presented with an even more dramatic mini-hurricane at the time we were paying our dinner bill. When we heard the boom of thunder, out came the weather radar screens on our phones. As Julian and I were debating whether the isolated red/orange/yellow blob would pass harmlessly around our location, I noticed it was starting to hail outside.

That was quickly augmented with gushing rainfall and high winds blowing the rain and hail sideways. Flash flooding swiftly resulted. We delayed our departure until the rain ended, but the intensity of the downpour was easily seen in the debris that had floated across the traffic lanes and the large puddles and runoff present wherever there was a low spot.

The sun was getting lower, but the surrounding areas of blue sky allowed enough light to illuminate another entertaining rainbow(s) that Julian caught while I drove.

I am no longer surprised by uncharacteristically heavy downpours because they are repeatedly happening often enough to have become “characteristic” these days.

Why, it’s as if, when it rains, it pours.

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