Hailstorm

So, today it was very very hot. Dad and David were working on the RV engine, and I was hanging around waiting for them to finish, when we heard a terrific crack of thunder. I love thunderstorms, so I rushed outside and watched the storm grow.

The air was muggy and very still. Lightning flickered over the tops of the trees, loud but distant. The storm wasn't going anywhere and I didn't have anything else to do, so I stood motionless under the birch tree (I think it's a birch) and waited. The leaves started to hiss in the rising breeze. People on the lake were pulling their boats into the docks. The storm flickered and rotated but stayed put overhead, rumbling. And it got darker. The first drops exploded in the dust, and Kissa who'd been hanging out with me fled under the RV.

The rain stopped. The wind grew restless with a sound so like a waterfall that I couldn't get the image of the Oregon Cascades out of my head. The air cooled and smelled like wet pavement. I looked down from the sky and saw a fox trotting across the crackly grass towards the ruined buildings. (Next time I really want a picture of the fox, too.) It passed right by Kissa without even noticing her, stopped to scratch its fleas, then saw me and stared.

Strange popping sounds burst across the yard, just a few at first, here and there. For a second I figured, hey, more rain! But rain doesn't bounce.

The fox heard my yelp of surprise and vanished into the woods.

I fled to the pinoak tree and leaned against the bole. Marble-size hail I expected. That's not so bad, I thought. So I watched. And it grew. Quarter-size. Persimmon-size. This was too awesome to ignore (and rather alarming) so I ran back inside the RV.

Work on the engine was finished and David suggested we should stand under the fiberglass shade and watch the storm. So that's what we did.

The hail got bigger and bigger, smacking the fiberglass and grass and metal and wood. Some of them exploded in little showers of July snow.

Golf-ball size.

It was wild and scary and amazing.

The storm lulled for awhile -- we found a frog and collected hailstones for the picture. I caught my cat and put her inside, and just in time. The wind started turning the trees inside out and blowing the dust into clouds. And then it poured. After weeks and weeks without rain, everything was parched and the coolness and the smell were glorious. :D