Equinox Rain

If anyone in our area had been planning to welcome Fall in an outdoor ceremony, they wouldn't have been able to outdo the fireworks Mother Nature brought for us last night. With flash flood warnings in place, a constant rumble of thunder, and the sky showing lightning that would rival the red carpet at the Academy Awards, it was a busy, busy night. At 12:30 am it was still raining hard, although the thunder and lightning had finally calmed down. When I finally awakened at 3:15 am the rain had stopped, but the warnings continue until 11 pm tonight. Ah, Fall in the Frozen Northlands - nothing quite like it.

Happy Equinox to all of you. We're ushering in one of my favorite seasons
here in Minnesota. It's a time of colorful leaves, crisp days, and amazing
beauty and bounty. We'll be following it by winter - my least favorite
season - but what a way to go! 

I'm posting photos of rainstorms, clouds and fall leaves to celebrate Mabon and our past and upcoming rainstorms. I also want to mention that today is Free Short Stack day at your local Perkins/Marie Callender's restaurants. If you make a donation to "Give Kids the World", the charity they've supported for many years, they'll give you a free short stack of pancakes. Yummy! I usually eat there several times a week anyway (one egg, two pieces of bacon and two pieces of toast with a POT of coffee), so giving a bit more for kids? No problem!

We were getting hundreds of lightning strikes per hour for a while last
night. I was nervous enough that I turned my computer off for the night -
something I rarely do since I schedule all of the system backups, etc. for
my overnight hours. It's much quieter now and I'm much happier. 

Shelf clouds like this spectacular example, presage thunderstorms. They are
formed by a mix of cold air coming down from above hitting a different
air level coming from below. The Weather Channel has some excellent
examples and explanations if you want details (and more accuracy
than my sparse explanation above). 

Have a wonderful Thursday. If I could, I'd send our rainstorms to those of you who truly need the moisture - California and other hot spots come to mind. However, I don't seem to have those superpowers. I have Project Runway to watch tonight and I'll be back tomorrow with some Kitty photos. The furry demons are doing very well, and my allergies suck! Oh well ...