Bailing a sinking ship 

I love a good storm. A storm front is an amazing wondrous thing to watch. Our house has a fantastic view to the south, which is where all good weather fronts come from in Canterbury. From our deck we have watched many amazing thundery, or rainy, or snowy, or hail front arrive. Often the weather changes from a beautiful warm calm sunny day to a cold mad swirling stormy mess within a very short time. 

Thunderstorms are created by a lifting parcel of warm air, often when a cooler front advances, pushing the warm air upwards rapidly. The rising air cools fast and condenses, releasing latent heat energy which fuels the thunderstorm.  Thunderstorms typically have towering cumulonimbus clouds up to 12km high with distinctive anvil shaped heads.  Hail is formed in a thunderstorm as ice crystals grow as they are spun up and down in the rising and cooling air.  The ice crystals receive many layers of condensation which freeze and are recoated until too heavy for the wind. 

Last Sunday we had a tremendous rumbly, thundery, hail storm. We followed the dark clouds slowly encroaching us, billowing high above the approaching storm front. As the lightening got closer we listened to the thunder, counting together how long and how far away it was. When it passed over us, the hail started, with a great loud roar. Hail coated everything in white. It looked like a northern hemisphere Christmas!  

After the hail came the rain. Big fat drops falling very hard and very thickly. Masses of water coming down.  Now the problem with water is that it has to have somewhere to go, otherwise it can cause a nasty situation. On this particular day, the hail was thick and clogged the drains and gutters. Adding to it was that the weather had been dry lately and the streets hadn't been swept of the leaves that seem to continuously fall. 

At one point, a wee while after the heavy rain started, I wandered past my front door and my eye caught on a puddle at my front door. It wasn't just a small puddle, it was well over the bottom of the door and water was pouring down the street from above our house on the hill. The drain at the top of the street had failed and water was streaming down our street, part of it coming in our drive to puddle, or rather lake in the porch.   

Panic!   

Out came the kids and the buckets, and along with our neighbours, we desperately diverted the stream, unclogged the drains, soaked up the river coming in the door and bailed the front porch. All before a major catastrophe. It was lucky we were home. The front door is at the top of the house and any water coming in there would travel down the stairs through the whole house. 

 Unfortunately our neighbours below us had the same stream travel through their brand new garage which was storing their furniture to move into their brand new rebuilt home. Rather unlucky and unfortunate.  

I am not sure I will be quite so excited next time a thunderstorm approaches.  More than likely I will be slightly apprehensive about what could happen.