Deluge

I went to bed late and watched the storm coming in. The lightning show was spectacular. No thunder, just lightning. I woke up, and it was raining steadily, quietly. G & I both got ready, and I went to work.

There were a few times of distraction when it either went very windy or dark or the rain fell harder. I put on my 300mm lens and got on G's balcony to get a shot of the water building up on the back street. Any hope of going out in the evening had to be scrapped.

I hoped we'd be able to go out later to enjoy the cooler temperature, but the rain got worse in the afternoon, and it carried on into the evening. It was so bad that the UAE made it onto the world news, with roads becoming rivers and the airport runway looking like a lake. I guess at some point, we'll need to stop being a concrete jungle and put drainage in that can cope with this type of storm. We live in an old building, so we're fine. We saw videos of people in the newer areas whose homes got flooded by water coming in at ground level or had water through the roof.

And over on the other side of the world, it is my sister's birthday today. It's funny, it is this fact that helps me remember a similarly bad storm on this very day, 21 years ago.