Weather

Earlier tonight I sat in the little covered bbq area chatting to another motel guest, a welder with the BNSF railroad company. I’d gone out to take photos of the sky and commented that the clouds promised rain. Nope, he said, lived here all my life and it aint gonna rain.

Well, an hour later, we heard the first clap of thunder and the sky began to glow with lightning illuminating the clouds. Then the rain started. It rained very heavily for maybe half an hour. The lightning – not forked, just illuminating – is still lighting up the night sky, but the rain has stopped. A cool, refreshing wind has developed. Wonderful scents of wood and grass and ozone fill the air. So happy for the land, the trees and grasses, the animals and the ranchers. I suppose, in the UK, we curse the rain – having so much of it, but seeing this parched and dying land, one can begin to appreciate the need of rain.

Conversely, up north – Iowa, the Dakotas and other states, they are suffering record-breaking floods. Across the mid-west, tornadoes wreak their havoc. Nature is truly awesome and reigns supreme above mankind’s machinations. Thank goodness man cannot control everything on this earth.

A very welcome downpour for this area that has suffered drought since October, 2010