This past Sunday I had the pleasure of enjoying not one, not two, but three torrential downpours! Sunday morning I checked the weather forecast to see if the storms that had been in the queue since mid-week were actually going to happen. The forecast was upgraded from a shaky 30-40% (it had held this for multiple days) to a much more aggressive 70%. The morning turned to early afternoon and the forecast was bumped from 70% to a whopping 100% chance of rain with 2-3 inches (50-75mm for our European friends) expected. My next task was choosing which rainsuit to bring out for the occasion. I chose my dark green Helly Hansen highliner rainsuit, which is very heavy duty, and set it out on my covered back porch to be ready for when the time came.
The first storm arrived in the mid-afternoon and rained for a short period, maybe 20 minutes, after which the blue skies returned. This was certainly not the 2-3 inches of rain forecasted but whatever I thought, some rain is better than none! Later in the afternoon I checked the forecast again, nothing interesting other than a small potential for rain between 11pm-12am.
There is a saying that big things have small beginnings. The slight chance of rain at night I initially blew off earlier in the day had turned into a slow moving mega-soaker. The clouds had sucked up all of the moisture and humidity and turned it into a gigantic atmospheric sprinkler. The mega-soaker storm arrived at around 11pm.
Huge drops of rain slammed down on the roof with ravenous fury, the sound was deafening. I quickly made my way out to don my dark green rainsuit and rubber boots. Outside the sound of the rain was even more deafening than it was inside. It was absolutely coming down. I tightened the hood of my raincoat as much as I could and set out into the deluge. It wasn’t long until my face was soaked and rainsuit glistening from the rainwater streaming down it like a waterfall. It seemed that The Almighty had taken notice of my presence outside and ordered that the rain come down even harder and faster. Visibility was reduced heavily and the street lamps nearby weren’t as bright. After a short while of the fury of the storm lightened up and returned to a more moderate rain. During the storm intermission I fetched a lawn chair from my shed for a better experience. Shortly after the rain picked up again and matched its previous tempo, this time I estimate for 20 minutes.
Unfortunately all things come to an end and the storm certainly did. The rain gradually died down in intensity over the next 30 minutes. When I called it quits the rain was coming down lightly but still with its characteristic large drops. I changed out of my rainsuit and was dry other than the area around my neck and face which caught quite a bit of rain and went to bed at around 12:30am.