Friday, June 29, 2012

Gust Front.

Just drove to the grocery store. The sky to the north looked ugly and bruised, and by the time I finished shopping, the gust front hit.

Trees were whipping and branches were falling and at first I thought that there was a dirty brown squall line moving south, until I realized that it was the topsoil of northern Indiana farmland in the air.

Then the rain hit, nearly an inch in an hour or so, plus hail. It was pretty sporty for a bit, with the power flickering and mighty hardwoods bending. Emergency vehicle sirens could be heard everywhere. Unsurprising, since the gullywasher liquified nearly a month's worth of dirt and oil on the streets, rendering them as slick as greased glass...

23 comments:

bluesun said...

Sounds almost as bad as a Posleen invasion.

fast richard said...

I drove across part of northern Ohio and all of northern Indiana yesterday afternoon. As I pulled into Gary for fuel, a storm was rolling in. It sounded a bit like an artilery barrage for a while, but there was no big gust front.

The crops in Ohio and Indiana look every bit as bad as I had heard. Anything not irrigated was stunted or dying.

Anonymous said...

Thought you were gonna talk about John Ringo's novel.

~Glamdring

ExurbanKevin said...

Unsurprising, since the gullywasher liquified nearly a month's worth of dirt and oil on the streets, rendering them as slick as greased glass.

This is why people in Phoenix are drive so slowly in the rain. Imagine a gullywasher that brought nine months of dust and oil out of the road, and that's why we slow down.

Well, that, and we're not that sure what this "rain" stuff is...

Drang said...

@bluesun: Sounds almost as bad as a Posleen invasion.
Oh, come now, not even a bad as a bunch of government bureaucrats. (Upside of Posleen invasion: They eat government bureaucrats.)

Sabra said...

This is why people in Phoenix are drive so slowly in the rain.

It's why we do the same in San Antonio. Except for the out-of-towners, who smugly say "Those idiots don't know how to drive in the rain!" And then hit someone else.

Big rain never does break a drought, but it sure makes you hopeful for more. I was hoping for y'all's sake it would be rain of the slow and steady type. Soon, I hope.

Vaarok said...

I was also going through MO/IN/IL/OH yesterday, and yeesh. Stock up on beans and cornmeal before the short crop hits.

Chas S. Clifton said...

Here is what 100• F., dry, and windy looks like. Just add (suspected) arsonist. The video.

Firehand said...

When son was learning to drive, we were out one day after a few weeks of dry and it started raining lightly. I waited till we had a empty street, told him to turn left and 'give it a little extra gas'. The result seriously got his attention and I said "Remember what I mentioned about the first rain? I wasn't kidding."

He remembered.

RabidAlien said...

Sounds a lot like driving on the streets in Hawaii. Mostly coral, when it rained (like...every day) those bad boys got slicker than dogsnot on a hot sidewalk. Even with new tires, taking a corner was always a tricky proposition. Even Hawaiian drivers would slow down a bit (almost approaching the actual posted speed limits, in the worst cases) and leave at least 8 inches of space between bumpers, just for that extra safety margin.

mustanger said...

Sabra,

I don't know that your out-of-towners don't know how to drive in the rain so much as they don't know how to drive among San Antonio drivers when it's raining.

Y'all ever drive around Atlanta or Chattanooga? 70mph bumper to bumper. And they don't seem to slow down for rain or much else... unless there's a wreck and then they gotta gawk. One reason I don't mind not living there.

Anonymous said...

I'd give a hundred dollars for an inch of rain here in NW MO. I've got to think that stocking the pantry will prove to be wise.

Jeff said...

Phoenix sounds better than here, Vegas drivers are the worst, when it rains people are losing control all over the place, driving into walls and whatnot.

Once Free Man said...

"Seven dollars a bale for hay!?!?!?! Don't buy it, mom."

"But, son, we need hay and it's what I can find."

"Wait. Rain just passed through, more this weekend."

It's 4 AM and I'm watching radar because of the massive thunder cracks that woke me up.
I think I made the right call when I told her to wait.

Tam said...

mustanger,

"Y'all ever drive around Atlanta ...?"

From the time I got my license in '85 til I moved to Knoxville in '00.

For the last few years there, I commuted 100 miles a day in ATL traffic. On a motorcycle. Good times, good times... :)

Chris said...

OFM,
we just put up 6 fields worth here in the Keystone last weekend.
3800 bales total.
There askin $3.50 around here. Good luck!

CIII

Jake said...

I would stake SoCal drivers against Vegas ones. I remember the Grapevine (interstate 5 north of Los Angeles, 4144 foot mountain pass) on one January day. About 36 degrees, a heavy, wet snow. I was doing about 48mph in the #3 lane, passing trucks doing 35 - and getting passed (occasionally on both sides!) by cars doing at least 85, as though it were a sunny day on level ground.

They were all oblivious to the sight of, every mile or two, a highway patrol car parked by the side of the road, an officer peering over the broken guardrail into the ravine.

Two days later, the Grapevine was wiped out in a landslide. All four southbound lanes. No word on if anyone slowed down.

Stretch said...

Your storm hit Northern Virginia 'bout 2230 hours. Even had a tornado in Manassas.
When learning to drive Dad took me to western PA in winter. "No son of mine is going to drive like a Washingtonian."

Ed said...

Ah... tales of suspension of belief in the laws of physics and/or vivid examples of magical thinking.

Ian Argent said...

Learning to drive inside the Beltway != learning to drive like a Washingtonian. It's an excellent hostile training environment, and I find that learning in that environment makes anyplace in BosWash merely annoying.

Woodman said...

Driving inside the beltway is a great way to work on your situational awareness. I don't think I've ever had my head on a swivel more than driving along the mall.

I go there about once a year and it still shocks me every time.

Pakkinpoppa said...

Ohioland checking in. Made a strategic error of getting childcare lined up so I could make my blasters "bang" instead of merely click like I'm used to, and...due to the fun wind and storm Friday...no dice. Rolled up to New Albany range, right at ten o'clock, and there's a sign out front, "closed due to power outage." Which isn't surprising. The next closest range didn't even answer the phones. So, my buddy Chris suggested we roll to Vance's and get that gun cabinet for my dad, and after verifying they were open, we headed that way.

Inside the belt of outer 270 that rings the colon...er, Columbus, about 90% of the traffic lights were blank. Want to see what it's going to look like an hour prior to anarchy? Drive around a city that has no power and the traffic signals don't work. People must not pay attention during driver's ed, what with texting and the new smartphones and all, the whole "4 way stop if the light isn't on" is only obeyed by about one in ten people at the most. What normally was a twenty minute trip with lights was about an hour of being resigned to a wait at every intersection.

What I wondered is, I saw fire trucks and ambulances being cut off at the blank traffic signals having to lay on their air horns to get their jump in line, but I didn't see a single police officer. Not one. Not that I expected any to be directing traffic at intersections, but I wondered that I didn't see any about at all.

Ian Argent said...

The biggest problem with DC area traffic is lack of shared driving culture. You really can't predict which way any car is going to jump in response to events. As a class, I think Philly and CT drivers are worse, but they are uniformly bad, and therefore predictably so.