"Slight chance of thunderstorms during the late afternoon and early evening." That's what they said on the 24-hour local weather channel. I never had a 24-hour local weather channel before I moved here... pretty neat.

I'd been running a sprinkler on the front lawn today, so I knew we were in trouble (because finally breaking down and watering the lawn is sure to make it rain). I went out, turned off the water, coiled up the hose and went back inside to my air-conditioned splendor.

Not five minutes later, 100% of the SEVERE thunderstorm whipped through my neighborhood out on the western edge of Wake County.

Thunder. Lightning. Wind so heavy it would require Stephen Hawking to do the meteorological calculations. Then the rain.

In the middle of it all came a loud *-pop-* followed by a crash.

Oh great, I thought, now I have a hole in my roof. Well, fortunately the big branch from a maple tree 20 feet from the house bounced or was blown off the roof before it could do damage. Most of it ended up on my deck (the smoker is safe, you'll be glad to know); almost none of it is still on the roof (the usual twigs); some of it made it all the way over to the other side of the house - that's how windy it was.

Now the 24-hour local news (not weather) channel says it's been upgraded to a severe thunderstorm watch until 10pm. Gee, thanks guys.

Posted by Russ at 07:20 PM, July 9, 2003 in North Carolina