optimisticOn Sunday, the weather cleared for a while, but Lisa came in and pointed out that there was some really nasty looking weather heading toward us from the north. I took a series of photos as a thunderstorm rolled over us.
The range of hills to the north has all but vanished as a strong thunderstorm cell bears down on Fernley.
The clouds drop down lower as the storm nears.
A passing Union Pacific freight train hurries through in advance of the cloud bank.
Tendrils lick out of the clouds, making us think nervously of tornadoes. Fernley doesn't get tornadoes, does it? High winds off Pyramid Lake, yes. Large-scale dust devils in the summer, sure. But not tornadoes.
About ten minutes after the previous shot, the storm arrived.
Unlike last week's storm, the rain didn't try to all fall at once, but it was strong, as were the winds. Lightning flashed nearby, and thunder rattled the house. I stayed under cover in the doorway of our house.
Earlier that day, Lisa tried out the new propane weed burner. No danger of setting the yard afire in this weather.
Water puddles readily here, with nowhere to go, but we're not worried about flooding at our house.
The lot next to us is mostly lower than our lot, so water tends to run toward it.
After an hour or so, the rain subsided. Here's one of the puddles with the scorched remains of some of the tumbleweeds Lisa had been burning earlier that day.
Two hours later and the storm has passed, leaving lovely blue sky. We got out the weed burner and tried killing more weeds with it. If we can't burn 'em out, maybe we can boil 'em.
That was the lesser of the two storms that hit us this weekend. I do hope there was even more rain, and maybe even some snow, up in the Sierra Nevada. I want a very wet winter. So does almost everyone in California and Nevada, I think.
