I apologize for the poor quality of these photos, it was very dark, and rainy, but sometimes a photo IS worth a thousand words. And yes, that’s hail, and it got even bigger later on.
They do it big up here in the Okanagan, thunderstorms that is… huge, giant black clouds complete with crashing thunder, and lightning that lights up the sky, gale force winds that whip trees around, it looked like the photos of Florida in a hurricane that they show on the news. Crashing clouds, flashing skies, branches falling onto power lines, now that is a thunderstorm. At first when the sky darkened we thought “oh maybe it will rain a bit” it was hot and muggy just after dinner. Beautiful, the sun setting, a golden glow through the trees, dark clouds, until suddenly out of nowhere the clouds started to bump into each other like shoppers at a blue light sale.
Lighting lit up the sky, it was fun to watch, until the rain started, scary, noisy, wet, there was water all over, driving winds pushing the cedar hedges over, and shaking down the giant fir trees that have lived here longer then any of us.
Rain cascading down the roof, hitting the windows, and then it turned to hail… big chunks of ice trying it’s best to come through the windows. The ground white, in town, lesser hail, but still damaging here. Gardens destroyed beyond anything that should be happening at this time of year, tree branches snapping and falling into the power lines, sparks flashing in the rain. Even we newcomers understand this is not normal for this time of year.
What worries me is that the old timers tell us that they have never seen storms like that last two we have had.
As a gardener, and as a newbie to this part of the world, I watch the changes in the weather in order to understand our new climate. It’s hotter, colder, and harsher up here, but I suppose after a few seasons of each we will be old hats at this. Making snowballs from the hail…