Saturday Night

On Saturday night, I got the rare treat of a Mom's Night Out. My sister and I went to see My Sister's Keeper (if you haven't, read it. If you aren't a reader, watch it. There are some pretty major differences between book and movie, as always, but still definitely worth watching). I was driving home around 9:00, and I could see the storm coming. So far this summer, we have had many severe thunderstorm watches and warnings, but I certainly wouldn't say that any of them achieved "severe" status. Judging by the heat, those clouds, and all the lightning I was seeing, they could be right this time.

Chris, Kinsley, and I sat on the deck watching the lightning. Lochlyn was out cold, and stayed that way the whole night. It was a beautiful night for deck-sitting, and Kinsley fell asleep on my lap watching the lightning. There was no thunder yet, and no rain, but we knew it was coming, but very slow-moving.

Fast forward about two and a half hours. It was then dark, and the storm was closer. I knew I would never be able to get a good picture of the lightning, so we decided to take some video. The whole sky was lighting up, not just the old bolt of lightning here and there. Still, there was no rain, but the wind had started.

Ten minutes later, we had moved inside. The storm was now overhead, and we could hear the thunder. I thought that the hail might've started.

Three minutes later, the hail had definitely started! It was deafening, and a bit scary. The way the hail was pelting the front window, we were scared it was going to crack. You might hear Chris at the end of the next video commenting about the vehicle. This was about when we decided he better go move that Santa Fe into the garage. The original video shows all the hail and blowing rain, but when I watched blogger's version or it is was pretty pixellated. Maybe it is clearer for all of you?

We opened the front door, then quickly slammed it shut. The wind was wild, and was blowing the rain and hail right in the door. I tried to take some pictures, but they weren't really turning out. I did take some of the hail in our front entrance, and on the porch. Poor Chris got soaked in the time it took to run to the Santa Fe.

There was no damage, to the Santa Fe or to anything else. Edmonton got it much worse, there was lots of damage and people without power. My brother-in-law Tim lost power in Crane Lake, but we kept ours. They have dubbed it the Storm of the Summer, I certainly have seen nothing like it.

Although I kept running to check, the girls did not even stir. Unbelievable. I thought our windows would shatter or the roof rip off, and they slept soundly through the whole thing. Probably that is a good thing, I imainge they may have been quite scared.

The storm carried on into the night, I am not sure for how long. I did wake up with Kinsley at about 4:30, and I think it had passed.