Apocolypse

The boys and I went into town this afternoon to get them some things for the upcoming holiday.

As we returned to the car in the multistory carpark, we could see a storm rolling in - it was less than a mile away. By the time we had got out onto the road it had started to pour with rain. This cascade got worse in the short time it took to get home - the conditions were so bad that with 200 yards to home we down to 5mph. It got worse still as I pulled onto the drive. We were stuck in the car just a few feet from the front door - for ten minutes!

This image doesn't do justice to the conditions, but, if you consider that the wipers were running at their fast speed, you can see the amount of rain hitting the screen within the 1/4 of second of the last sweep.

A little later I found out that roads and shops in town, just a minutes walk from where we were, were flooded up to a foot deep. A preseason football match (considering the world cup has just finished - how dare they!!!) just a short distance from home was abandoned.

After we managed to get indoors, I looked at a lightening tracking website that showed lightening strikes at the rate of up 4-5 a second. A short while ago in North East France, I've seen a storm where it has been striking at that rate and higher continuously with peak rates of 10 strikes a second across the 30 mile wide storm.

The colossal power of nature never ceases to amaze.