Member since:
April 16, 2007

Stormy Wednesday

July 01, 2009 08:47 PM EDT (Updated: July 01, 2009 08:56 PM EDT)

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Whew! I went down to the Cliff Walk today (still chasing after slow shutter speed shots of waves crashing on rocks) and ended up getting caught in a very nasty thunderstorm. Actually it was probably about three separate storms with no real lull between them. For the longest stretch of about two hours, which incorporated two of the storms, I sheltered in the tunnel under the Chinese Tea House with a group of fellow storm refugees. When it looked like it was letting up we all booked. But not long after we took off the rain came back with a vengeance, and so did the lightning and thunder. I got soaked. I also got the bejabers scared out of me when a lightning bolt went off right overhead at one point. It didn't hit anything (I suspect it was cloud to cloud lightning), but it was right overhead, the thunder was simultaneous, and there was even that electric fzzzzzt going on as it flashed and boomed. After that I hid out for another half hour on the porch of Miley Hall in Salve Regina University while more lightning flashed and more thunder boomed.

Before we look at some very dramatic (and freakin' weird) storm clouds coming on, there were some other things of note on the Cliff Walk today. First, there was a Mink walking along checking out me and a family on the other side of him (all of us clicking away), seeming to pose (he posed for me for this shot and then he turned around to pose for the people behind him) before taking flight when a jogger came pounding along. Soon after the Mink incident I came across a patch of Dame's Rocket and just had to get a macro of some. [Note: Click on the photos to see the full-size version.]

So before I came to the Mink and the Dame's Rocket, I rounded Ochre Point and came down towards Marine Ave. and was struck by the formation of the clouds associated by the storm I could hear coming.

Farther down the Cliff Walk, past the Beechwood, Rosecliff, and Marble House mansions and after passing under the Chinese Tea House via the tunnel, I looked up and saw this.

After passing through the tunnel under Sheep Point and looking toward Doris Duke's Rough Point mansion, this is what the sky looked like. This was looking very weird indeed! It was also looking and sounding very threatening, so I turned around to head for shelter. I considered staying in the Sheep Point tunnel, but there was just too much wind blowing through, so I headed for the tunnel under the Chinese Tea House, much bigger and more of a shelter.

So for the next two hours, this was my home. I shared it mostly with two women from New Zealand, but there were other, fleeting visitors as well. There's a drain in the tunnel, but either there was too much water coming in for it to deal with or it was clogged, because the tunnel started to flood with all the incoming water. Toward the end of those two hours the water was over the tops of my hiking boots. The Kiwi ladies and I decided the rain had let up enough (more fools we!) and we headed out into the rain.

As I said above, the storm wasn't nearly done yet, and I ended up getting the rest of me as wet as my feet got in the tunnel. But it was a Summer rain, for all the downpour, and it wasn't cold, so if it hadn't been for the lightning it would have been a pleasant walk home in the rain.

I'll leave you with this view of Rough Point before that weird lenticular cloud totally overtook the sky. I always think of Wuthering Heights when I look at the house sitting out on its point, but the sky today really made the image of Rough Point as Wuthering Heights all the more real.