Friday, June 18, 2010

Upon Which I Forecast the Weather By An Old Saying

The storm this morning sounded like a freight train roaring past our bedroom window.

A train wouldn't be unusual...we have numerous coal trains go through town every night and every day. The engineer blows that whistle from one end of town to the other and you can hear that train rumble its way from south of us to north of us and then again from north to south as it heads back to Wyoming for more coal. It's amazing that I can sleep through the night and never hear those trains unless I happen to already be up and making a trip to the bathroom.

But this early morning, before sunrise, the roar was outside the window and it wasn't a train. A storm was blowing through town. Not a tornado storm. Just a heavy-duty horizontal wind.

I took a photo out the back window to try to show you how the wind was swirling the branches of our small trees but it's hard to capture wind in a photo. How do you do that? Wind is invisible...I must capture the moving branches...but my effort was to no avail.

I have a tip for you again today. It is this...."Rain before Seven, Over by Eleven.". Yep. This little storm will roar through town, drop a bit of rain, bluster and boast, and then dissipate into a quiet day. In order to be over by eleven, the storm must begin in the early hours of the morning. If it begins at midnight...nope...the saying will not necessarily hold true. But an early morning storm? Regardless of how boastful the storm might be, it will soon exhaust itself and move eastward to bother someone else. In our part of the country, in Western Iowa, the saying is true about 95 percent of the time.

Hoping your day is one of sunshine. Unless you need rain, of course. In that event, I hope your land gets needed moisture.

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3 comments:

melissa said...

That horizontal wind can be scary. We had, what they call, straight-line winds a few years back and lost a tree and some shingles. Over 100 miles/hour, I think, so I feel your *excitement* over your storm.

I'd rather it rain hard and storm during the day, rather than night. Least I can see the damage, you know?

Your back deck is pretty...and everything looks so GREEN! :)

Hope today is good for you...after it dries out. Take care.

S. Etole said...

We had some pretty strong weather last night, too, but the tornadoes went to the west and south of us.

Kelly said...

I'll have to make a point of seeing if that saying holds true in my parts.