Rain

It rained Tuesday and Wednesday nights!!! Yes.. rain! Even if the forecasters said we only had the slightest of chances, we got rain!

Tuesday's rain started during the concert which I had mentioned in an earlier blog post. It rained a number of times past midnight. The next morning the ground was soft. Yes... soft! It had been baked hard. The corral smelled of old wet manure from where the cattle piled it up around the feeder.

Then Wednesday night we got rain again even though we had only the slightest of rain chances. This time with the rain came thunder and lightning and supposedly even a couple tornadoes south of Flathead Lake. Yes... tornadoes! We never get tornadoes out here.

There were lots of widespread damage and power outages around the Valley. I didn't have any damage.

Here are several news stories about the damage:

• widespread damage
• winds rip roof from area

Brain and I were in Glacier Park near Logan Pass when we first saw blue rain clouds to the SW. We were driving along Lake McDonald when the lightning flashed in the distance over the Valley and the Swan Mountain. The lightning was frequent, sharply defined, and lit the sky. I have lived in the Plains and have seen tremendous lightning storms and by those standards this lightning was impressive. The weather forecaster on TV originally was from Kansas many years ago, and he said that being from the Great Plains he never had been impressed by western Montana's lightning and thunderstorms - until now.

From Glacier Park we could see over part of the Valley an oval of semi-clear pinkish skies due to the sunset I was hoping it wasn't over the ranch as it meant no rain. Once we entered the Valley I seen this area was much north of the ranch. *whew*

The rain was coming down heavy once we were in the valley, and had pretty much ended by the time we reached the ranch. I could see pools of standing water from the recent rain.

Along the highway and three miles from home there were no working stoplights - or any lights for that matter. Flathead Electric coop workers were out working on the power lines. As we drove down the highway there were no lights. Brain worried I had no power. He was looking forward to cooking supper after a long and tremendous day of hiking.

About a mile from home we saw lights on at the homes and businesses. I had power though I had apparently lost it earlier, and now had to reset my electronic devices flashing at me.

The rain was very needed and welcome. We need more rain as today when digging for gopher traps, I found the rain - like beauty - is only skin deep as the ground under the shallow top layer is completely dry.