Ok. I know that I was gonna work on putting some scenery slide shows on here and I'm doing that, but on Jan 21 we had a huge storm. It just wasn't a huge storm, it was a HUGE storm! It rained all day and was so windy that we took the satellite down for most of the day and all of the night. One thing we don't want to happen is to have our satellite dish ripped off the roof of our rig! The dry wash by our rig filled to almost over flowing. Here is a picture of the dry wash right outside our rig the next day after the storm and a picture of the same place during the storm.
It poured almost all day. Then the winds picked up to 70mph gusts. We could see the rain blowing sideways across the desert from the southwest, and our door and big window face that way. Thank goodness there aren't big trees out here or stuff laying around that could smack into our rig. Dan and I were without any kind of communication, ie, tv/internet/radio. I couldn't get the local radio station and Dan had taken down the regular tv antenna and it was sitting at home in storage. We just had our cell phones. Soon as the winds starting to hit us with the high wind gusts, our pal Debbie called to let us know there was a tornado watch. The one time we brought the satellite back up during the day was for about 1/2 hour. We were on there long enough to know about the tornado watch. Debbie called us again during that brief period of time we were online to let us know that the tornado watch was now a tornado warning. Oh, crap. We took the satellite immediately back down and just waited to see what would happen. Our rig was rockin' and rollin' for quite awhile. Dan calmly sat at the computer and played an offline solitary game while I paced back and forth, back and forth. I did not like what was happening and I'd never been in a tornado watch/warning situation. I tried to take pictures through the windows. That didn't work too good. The wind was hitting us pretty hard from the southwest, so I opened a window on the southeast of our rig and got some shots of the dry wash pretending to be a river. I just couldn't believe how fast the dry wash became a wet wash! Soon as the HUGE part of the storm was over and it died out a little bit, the "picture taking personality" in me decided to put on the long rain slicker/rubber boots/baseball cap with rain slicker hood over me, and outside my camera and I went. The wind was still REAL strong, so Dan had to grab the door so I could get out. I got a few pictures standing outside in the storm then I ducked under the front of our 5th wheel and took a few more from there. It wasn't cold out, but it sure was wet and windy. Eventually it seemed like we were in "the eye of the storm". It was almost a dead calm and trying to sunshine a little bit. Our neighbors up the road came out and were snapping pictures and I was back outside to do the same. I'm not sure how much damage was caused by this storm right now as I write this, but I sure could hear sirens and see flashing lights, so I knew something had happened somewhere. Probably because of all the water on the road, I'm guessing. We were suppose to have another storm hit us at midnight, but it never came. Not sure why it bypassed us to the north or south, but I'm glad it did. Today, 1/23, you would never know we had a storm. Not by looking out the window where I took the first picture from. The desert sure changes from day to day and even hour to hour. Since the storm I've gone into town taking my camera with me in case I seen something interesting that had happened, but its still so crowded with vehicles and people it was all I could do to be aware of my surroundings, so I came back home. Safer to stay home.
It poured almost all day. Then the winds picked up to 70mph gusts. We could see the rain blowing sideways across the desert from the southwest, and our door and big window face that way. Thank goodness there aren't big trees out here or stuff laying around that could smack into our rig. Dan and I were without any kind of communication, ie, tv/internet/radio. I couldn't get the local radio station and Dan had taken down the regular tv antenna and it was sitting at home in storage. We just had our cell phones. Soon as the winds starting to hit us with the high wind gusts, our pal Debbie called to let us know there was a tornado watch. The one time we brought the satellite back up during the day was for about 1/2 hour. We were on there long enough to know about the tornado watch. Debbie called us again during that brief period of time we were online to let us know that the tornado watch was now a tornado warning. Oh, crap. We took the satellite immediately back down and just waited to see what would happen. Our rig was rockin' and rollin' for quite awhile. Dan calmly sat at the computer and played an offline solitary game while I paced back and forth, back and forth. I did not like what was happening and I'd never been in a tornado watch/warning situation. I tried to take pictures through the windows. That didn't work too good. The wind was hitting us pretty hard from the southwest, so I opened a window on the southeast of our rig and got some shots of the dry wash pretending to be a river. I just couldn't believe how fast the dry wash became a wet wash! Soon as the HUGE part of the storm was over and it died out a little bit, the "picture taking personality" in me decided to put on the long rain slicker/rubber boots/baseball cap with rain slicker hood over me, and outside my camera and I went. The wind was still REAL strong, so Dan had to grab the door so I could get out. I got a few pictures standing outside in the storm then I ducked under the front of our 5th wheel and took a few more from there. It wasn't cold out, but it sure was wet and windy. Eventually it seemed like we were in "the eye of the storm". It was almost a dead calm and trying to sunshine a little bit. Our neighbors up the road came out and were snapping pictures and I was back outside to do the same. I'm not sure how much damage was caused by this storm right now as I write this, but I sure could hear sirens and see flashing lights, so I knew something had happened somewhere. Probably because of all the water on the road, I'm guessing. We were suppose to have another storm hit us at midnight, but it never came. Not sure why it bypassed us to the north or south, but I'm glad it did. Today, 1/23, you would never know we had a storm. Not by looking out the window where I took the first picture from. The desert sure changes from day to day and even hour to hour. Since the storm I've gone into town taking my camera with me in case I seen something interesting that had happened, but its still so crowded with vehicles and people it was all I could do to be aware of my surroundings, so I came back home. Safer to stay home.
2 comments:
Hi Guys, We were at Dome Rock when the storm hit. We think we were hit by the edge of the tornadoes that were hitting Bylte. The 5th wheel was rocking up and down and the rear blocks went out from the back jacks. It picked us up and turned us two feet to the left. The front jacks slammed down in the mud and tilted us to the left with the rear jacks a foot in the air. The pads on the front jacks were bent up but luckily the jacks themselves were not bent. We managed to bottle jack it up enough to hook it to the truck. We were lucky. It was quite an experience. Ken and Pat
Oh my! How scary! We were wondering if we'd see a tornado or not. I'm so glad you're ok. What a tale! Thanks for reading my blog.
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