Although it rained overnight, no additional rain was expected for today after sunrise. It was supposed to be blue skies and beautiful weather. And it was... right up until I was about to get ready to take the Chihuahua girls out for a late afternoon walk.

Before leaving, I stopped to check the plants on my deck. That's when I heard the distant sound of almost continuous thunder. Looking up, I saw that the sky was clear blue with puffy white clouds. However when looking to the East where the sound was coming from, things started to get darker and darker. Since weather normally moves from the West to the East, I assumed whatever was going on had missed us. So it was okay to go out for a walk as I had planned. That's when the winds unexpectedly picked up. The local weather later said that those winds were clocked at 65 MPH. The sky overhead was still clear blue; so I didn't know what to think.

Out of caution, I called the dogs over and put them safely inside the house. Then, I went back out into the wind storm. I find weather fascinating. The storm to the East had abruptly shifted directions & a dark bank of angry clouds quickly enveloped our backyard. From the above photo, you can see those storm clouds moving in to gobble up the beautiful blue sky.

Things got almost as dark as night & the skies suddenly opened up with a deluge of pouring rain with hail. That went on for about 5 minutes before the National Weather Service officially declared a Severe Thunderstorm Warning. They had been caught off guard, too. The local meteorologists later commented on how odd this surprise thunderstorm was.

The storm only lasted about 15-20 minutes, but it did a lot of damage Metro Wide. A lot of homes will be without power until tomorrow. More trees are also down.

Because the sky never completely cleared up after the storm, I didn't go for my walk. I didn't trust the weather suddenly turning on me again. Tomorrow is another day.