It is not that often that a person can get it so wrong that it brings fear to them.  Just 30 minutes ago I was complaining about the rain always missing us. This evening was shaping up to be another one of those evenings where there is a line of thunderstorms that goes completely across the state and then forms a hole just as it passes the metro area.  As much as I love storms I find myself getting mad when this happens.  Well I guess I insulted God, or angered him in some way because shortly after that, we had a downpour.  I would estimate that the wind was blowing nearly 80 MPH in the above photo.  You can even see a leaf blowing by in this shot.

In this picture you can see how the street was flooded near my home.  This is the rain that we never get.  I would say the water was about four inches deep in the center of the road here.

In the picture above you can see the tree branch laying in the road with the hail splashing in the flooded street.  The storm was almost over at this point and you can see the elementary school in the background is showing signs of the sun coming out.

This is the beautiful sky as the storm is moving away.  The large bird circles over head asking himself “What was that?”  I really enjoyed this storm and wanted to share it with the rest of you.  That wind did get a little scary at one point.  I missed some great shots because I was trying to keep the camera dry.  At one point the wind was blowing so hard and the rain was coming down so hard that I could barely see across the street.  I do not want to be known as the one that always complains when things are going bad and never give God credit when things are going well.  We really needed this rain and it was a real blessing.  I am very thankful to be able to get rain especially when two hours earlier it was 97 degrees.  If you want to see the rest of the pictures, just click on any one of them and it will take you to Flickr to see the whole set.  Thanks for stopping by.

I have live many places and no matter where I go they say the famous statement “If you don’t like the weather here, just wait five minutes and it will change”.  Everywhere I go, people have this opinion that their weather is always drastically changing.  I have found this statement to be relative to whatever the person is familiar with.  This statement definately applies if you live in Oklahoma.  This 26th day of December we are currently at 71 degrees and the wind is steadily at 30+ MPH from the South as you can see in the above graphic that we are in a wind advisory.

Just two days ago it was 16 degrees outside.  In the past two weeks we have been as high as the mid  70′s and as low as 9 degrees.  During the spring and fall months we have these cold fronts that come upon us from the Northwest and encounter our warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico.  This usually results in thunderstorms.  Even tonight we are expected to have severe thunderstorms as the cold front passes through.  Of course this will take away our warm weather but maybe we will get some rain.  We have been so dry and have had no snow this year.  Usually by now we would have had at least one snow fall.  With less than a week left in 2008, we are likely to end the year with no snow.

This morning I woke up and there were many boxes and other garbage in my front lawn.  I went outside and found that our neighbor across the street was a victim of the wind and had his dumpster blown over and his garbage was streaming across the street.  I found myself in their yard putting their garbage back in their dumpster.  Since yesterday was Christmas most people including them had much more garbage at the street.  They have many extra boxes and wrapping paper that will not fit into their dumpsters.  With the wind steady at 30, and gusts over 40 MPH.  At wind speeds that fast anything left outside is likely to be blown away.  Since my house faces the South, all the garbage from across the street finds its way against my fence or on my porch.  Tomorrow after the cold front comes through we can return the favor as the wind will be coming from behind our house.  Tomorrow the neighbors will be bringing my garbage back home.  Usually when these cold fronts come through, the wind is just as hard as before, but just going the opposite direction.  I guess there is one thing this wind is good for.  Many trees around the city have had dead branches hanging from the top as a result of the terrible ice storm last year.  This wind blows them so hard that some of them finally fall off.  Although this is dangerous if someone is standing below, it is nice to finally get them down so they do not look so ugly.  If you are interested in volunteering for garbage duty, please post your willingness to participate .  Just joking.

For those of you in Oklahoma City, you know what a windy day we had yesterday.  The National Weather Service had a graphic on their page that showed Oklahoma City’s peak wind gust was 54 miles per hour (MPH).  The wind was howling all day as fires sprung up around the metro.  We were just leaving the restaurant having lunch where my son works yesterday as we heard sirens.  Soon after we pulled away from the restaurant we saw this very large plume of smoke to our Northwest.  I went home and picked up my camera and drove over to Del City’s Eagle Lake to take these photos.  I listened to the police scanner and heard they were blocking traffic from Sunnylane so we went around to the other side.  I heard on the scanner from the Del City fire department that it was an asphault plant burning on the other side of this railroad track bridge.  This is near Bryant Avenue and NE 4th Street.  No one was hurt in this fire and it was only one of three in the metro yesterday.  This one is about three miles from my house.

The temperatures were perfect yesterday being in the mid 60′s while the wind was out of control just the way I like it.  I could go into my backyard and hear the wind whistling through our ham radio tower.  Today is much calmer with winds only 20 MPH .  This afternoon we are supposed to have a powerful cold front pass through our area dropping the temperature into the 20′s with a chance of freezing rain every day this week.  This brings to memory the wonderful ice storm of last year . 

It is difficult to imagine a more peaceful and relaxing weekend than this one where I had no homework and a day off work on Friday. This is just what I needed to relieve stress.  I love taking pictures when I have time but with school I hardly have any time.  Only five more months and I will be done with school and I will have more time to live.