Normally only the yellow apricot leaves fall to the ground.These were assisted by hail.
We lost a few hundred olives…
but a few thousand held on to the trees.
Finally, the wind was powerful enough to tip over an entire cheap plastic lawn chair!It was a pretty violent storm for placid, serene central California.
“Overnight rainfall was reported in the Valley, with Fresno receiving 0.06 of an inch, Merced 0.10, Madera 0.22 and Visalia 0.07. In the Sierra, Yosemite Valley reported 0.41 of an inch, Mariposa Grove 0.98, Oakhurst 0.66 and Shaver Lake 0.82.” —
The Fresno Bee, October 4, 2010Here in our little valley we got 1.55” (40 mm) of precipitation. Lots of trees got trimmed by the hail, and Chocolate Creek (so named for its color when a fake gold mine above our land used to flood) was roaring for a while. We still have electricity since we make our own. But we hear only a hum on the phone line. More thunderstorms are predicted for today.
To enlarge this picture, click on it. It’s a supercell thunderstorm in Montana. Unbelievable weirdness, almost like it’s on another, even imaginary, planet. Once again, it comes from good old Astronomy Picture of the Day, one of my go-to-first sites that I check daily.
