Wow!

Today has been an absolute stinker of a day - 42 C (107.5 F) at the maximum, sunny and humid. YUCK.

About 5pm I took a look on the weather radar and saw a rain system near the coast to the north-west, heading very slowly in our direction. It looked weak enough that it might peter out before reaching us, but I crossed my fingers and hoped.

Well, it got here. Oh, did it ever!

First there were a few specks of rain that evaporated before they could sink in. Then there were a few rumbles of thunder.

And then the heavens opened for the most comprehensive rainstorm I think I've ever seen.

Up came the wind, dropping the temperature 10 degrees in 15 minutes, back to an acceptable 30 C. The rain has come, and come, and come - I think it's been pouring down in big drops for an hour now! The ground is thoroughly soaked and there's little streams running off in every direction. And it's still thundering from time to time - I saw a ground strike through the window just a minute ago and leapt out of my skin from the immediate thunder (needless to say I'm on the laptop and it's not plugged into anything). I hope that lightening doesn't start any fires, hopefully everything is too wet for that. According to the radar, this storm cell has just settled over the town and isn't going anywhere, so it could be going for some time yet! I'll post some photos later.

At least it's cooled down!