The Lord God Made It All

A week ago today, we had some terrific storms blow over North Texas. Really, really terrific storms.  The kind that blows out power for the entire night, even in commercial districts.  The kind that snaps large trees in half and takes off roofs.  It’s been some time since I’ve seen that kind of storm.  In fact, the one we had, I would rate as one of the top 5 worst storms I’ve ever experienced.  And I have experienced many storms, having grown up at the lower edge of Tornado Alley.  Storms are so common here, that most of the time, I don’t even think much about them.  It takes a pretty powerful tempest to catch my attention these days.

We had a powerful gust front hit us after supper Wednesday evening. I was upstairs practicing on my brand new Sweetone Pennywhistle in C, with Sir Percy sitting on my lap enjoying my many squeaks and squawks.  Since my room faces west, I got smacked with the powerful winds first.  It was like running into a brick wall.  The powerful 80 mph winds slammed into the house, the lights went out, and Sir Percy dove screaming under my arm.  It was a long time before I could coax him back into his cage. 

There was a time when we were very worried that we would have a tornado when the storm had blown over, but that, fortunately, didn’t happen.  After the storm moved east, we went for a long drive and took a good look at the storm damage.  The lightening show to the east was dazzling, and to the west, another storm front behind the first turned the lurid sunset into something utterly spectacular.

And I didn’t get any pictures of it.

The next morning, though, after most of the storms had blown east, I did get some in the calm before the next storm hit.  The powerful winds snapped a branch off of our persimmon tree.

Our driveway is flanked by a long line of redbuds that my father has carefully cultivated for 17 years.  We were dismayed to find that one of them had snapped at the roots.  Closer examination revealed the borers had infested the tree, and the inside was rotting.  I think even a much weaker storm would have done it in.

This is looking northeast from my house at about 7:30 am.  This is the rear of a powerful storm that was sweeping just south of us.  All Thursday, we had scattered rain showers, but most of the worst weather was in Plano.

Close up.  The dark cloud I think is probably some stratus feeding off the moist air.

This is looking southwest.  Not only did the gigantic size of the storm impress me, but also the clearness of the sky beyond.  I suppose that’s what writers refer to as “rain-washed.”  The depth and clarity were astounding.

Rather impressive.

The storm damage was interesting.  In our neighborhood, we were able to identify paths of damage for several hundred feet.  It was almost as if mini tornadoes had ripped through Fairview Farms.  I think that might be exactly what happened.  It’s possible that we had a series of gustnados rip though the community when the first storm struck.  Gustnado is actually shorthand for a “gust front tornado.”  Gustnados are caused by the outflow of a severe storm, unlike real tornadoes which are caused by powerful mesocyclones.  They can exist in any storm with winds exceeding 58mph, and we certainly had stronger winds than that.  I’ve seen gustnados before, as a child, especially when the land around us was still mainly farms.  I’ve never seen damage done by any though, but if they were strong enough, perhaps they could be a possible explanation for what we saw after the storm.

It was certainly an interesting experiance, one I haven’t had in long time.  But I’m not sorry for it.  After all, if it hadn’t been for the storm, I never would have woken up to such a beautiful morning the next day.