In which humidity plus a dry line equals storms - finally

I must admit that one motivation for going to Midwestern TV stations in my job is to experience a little bit of the excitement of Midwestern weather. Severe storms to be specific. Hail. High winds. Torrential rain and deadly lightning. Tornadoes. Flying cows. The experience so far has been disappointing.

Yesterday was somewhat more exciting however. A line of storms moved through south eastern Minnesota about mid-morning. We knew we were in for it when a weather cut-in was announced over the intercom. From inside the conference room at KAAL, it looked as if the sun was setting. It got darker and darker out there; the street lights came on, and the traffic on I-90 turned on headlights. As getting rain, wind, and hail seemed more and more certain, I decided that I needed to run out the car - I had left my windows cracked to vent the heat of the day.

By the time I got outside, the wind had really picked up. The wind had filled the air with dust and the clouds were the peculiar color of turquoise that means trouble to any Kansas kid. With no rotation, it seemed that the worst would be hail. I got back under cover just as the first wind-driven drops stung my skin. Exhilaration made it hard to return to the conference room and the training, but as the rain sheeted down I gathered the class once again and proceeded.

I-90 runs maybe 70 yards in front of KAAL - there's a yard, a ditch, a street, and another ditch between the conference room window and the highway. The truckers' jake breaks frequently rattle the windows, and it seems that we hear a lot of traffic even through the windows that will not open. Yesterday morning at the height of the rain, we could barely see the highway. Some highway workers had hastily lifted the cones which directed drivers around the crews erecting new highway signs, and we could still see the blinking lights on the highway trucks parked across the road. But that was about all.

Alas, it was all over by the time I went to lunch. The skies were grey in the north and east, but of course that's not doing me any good! The drive home only encountered rain on the last few miles into Rochester. But the atmosphere was not done for the day.

I really hadn't planned to stay up so late. I ate supper from the freezer (having found the Hy-Vee the evening before) and read USA Today's coverage of the Israeli/Hezbollah conflict. I found CNN, and there was coverage there. About 9:30 there was an EAS activation; severe thunderstorms were again popping up to the west. I switched to the news at 10:00.

Sure enough, during the newscast, the storms triggered several warnings, and the weather geeks were reporting weak rotation in the storms. Perhaps it was wishful thinking, but I shut off the TV and the lights with some trepidation. What if a storm would strike? What if a tornado developed. The storm seemed to have Rochester dead in its sights.

I opened the window, and the curtains - which I never do in a hotel, because the neighborhood is always so well-lit. (Yes, that was sarcasm.) As it turned out, it was a pretty strong storm, but nothing remarkable. The thunder woke me up, and of course the storm got my attention when the lights went out. But no hail, even. Plenty of rain, though. I got up and shut the window and curtain.

Of course, my sleep was totally wacked. Not going to bed early, not initially being able to sleep, being awakened - it has all gotten to me today. I could have napped at lunch. I'm going to get to bed early tonight, but first, supper.