Unspeakable

I live in the desert. Once a year, usually in August, we get a monsoon. A monsoon is a really awesome thunderstorm with lots of wind and rain.

For the majority of my life, these storm have been the highlight of the summer, with fantastic lightening, that we watch bravely from inside our homes. When the lightening has passed, the neighbors all congregate outside--around 10 p.m. to take in the rain, splash in the puddles (we even get puddles for an hour or two!) and enjoy the cooler weather. It is a ritual handed down from the first settlers of the area: the Hohokam Indians. Except the Hohokam kids weren't sucking on frozen Otter Pops while they splashed.

Although we get an occasional microburst, for the most part, our "weather" creates a downed power line or two, with electricity restored to the grid within a couple hours. Our biggest inconvenience is having to reset our digital clocks the next morning while they are blinking "1:43."

We don't get  unusually warm and humid conditions in the lower atmosphere, with cooler than usual conditions in the upper atmosphere all congregating together to form tornadoes. We don't get these here because the air doesn't cool down and we don't have humidity. Lucky us.

In the past few days, tornadoes have ravaged the mid-west and South. Bliz and Alec's city made the news from some of the phenomenal damage suffered there.

Birmingham this past week has been hit horribly. Less than an eighth of a mile from Ms. Kathy's home (and about two miles from my Leeds home) a tornado tore the roof off the Moody police station. I texted Ms. Kathy once I heard. I haven't gotten a response. 

I had two tenants texting me weather reports today. None of it sounded pretty. I am hearing F5 tornadoes are running rampage in Jefferson County. I don't care about the houses. I have insurance. But I am concerned about the people. My prayers are with them.