Storm clouds - patterns

Living on the east side of this valley, I am often treated to the early signs of an approaching storm. Sometimes it's just a misty softness coating the hills across the way. Other times ominous dark clouds build and often scud quickly across the sky.

This particular storm was going to arrive at night. The thunderheads began to build against a peach streaked horizon.

They punched the sky going higher and higher.



Much later that night, we heard the first rumble and then the heavens not only opened they turned up the pressure. I looked out my deck doors as the storm arrived and in the lights from the deck could see the water coming straight down, hard and fast. My pond filled almost to overflowing within about an hour.

Then came the loud cracks and lightning that flickered as if a tornado was building.

We were luckier than many people have been with storms and rain in North America this year, actually around the world. In many places its been brutal with severe flooding. People watched their homes being destroyed, their livelihoods washed away.

Tragedies everywhere.

Stormy weather - not something I'm experiencing today - it's been beautiful since Saturday afternoon, sunny, warm and calm. But perhaps these storms are a harbinger of what's coming from now on. There is no question that we have changed the weather patterns as our climate has been affected by our lack of understanding of how human activity affects the planet.

I hope we are not on the edge of a continuing series of disasters. Selfishly, I want to enjoy my four-legged as well as my two-legged family, my wee garden and its tranquility. I know I'm not alone. I keep hoping too that we can work together around the world to make positive changes happen, sooner rather than later.

Stormy weather is not the pattern I hope to see for the rest of my life.