Saturday Storm

Saturday was a rough day weatherwise. We had heavy rain and were under a tornado warning for several hours, but a few miles west folks had hail so heavy it looked like a snowstorm . Creeks flooded, and a few roads in the county were washed out. Saturday morning's heavy rain gave way to sunny skies and hot weather. But by afternoon, things took a turn for the worse. Dark clouds rolled across the northern sky.

For a while things looked pretty good toward the west . . . 

. . . but when the wind picked up, Melody headed toward her shed.

Before long, the western sky darkened. Tornado warnings were issued for the western part of the county. Folks started posting on Facebook about how bad the weather was.

Soon, Rocky Mount—fifteen miles west of me—was pelted with hard rain. I could see the lightning bolts from my pasture. Clouds swirled around.

Meanwhile, to the east, odd-looking clouds zeroed in on Smith Mountain.

Dark clouds rolled across the northern sky.

Despite the bad weather to the west and the tornado warnings, Melody came back out to graze.

Spotz the barn-cat came to take a look at where all that thunder was coming from.

She looked a little closer . . . 

. . . and then decided she'd seen enough. 

Meanwhile, the clouds got darker and rain started here. 

Before long, Clouds engulfed Smith Mountain.

That's when I stopped taking pictures. Hard rain fell here and even harder rain fell in Union Hall. Heck, hard rain fell all around.

While a tornado didn't touch down here, there was a report of a possible one a few miles north of me. Glade Hill and the Smith Mountain Lake area were hard-hit with hail and many homes and vehicles were damaged. We were lucky here.

If I had gone to Charlottesville as I'd intended, I'd have hit the heavy rain, hail, and strong winds on my way home. In bad weather, staying home beats being on the road.

On Sunday rain fell most of the day. Except for an occasional heavy shower, it was mostly misty. While Sunday was dreary, it was a great improvement over Saturday.

Here are some links to videos about the hail: This one is from the Weather Channel. In this one, our local meteorologist explains why the county got so much hail.

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