Thundery Morning
The NWS had issued severe thunderstorm warnings for this window of time.
This morning, around 2:50am, I was awakened by near constant lightning flashes, a strobing kind of constant. The thunder was distant. I got up and went out to my porch to see that the sky was overcast and the distant lightning lit up the whole sky from some 50 miles away on the west side of the pass. There was another lightning source to the NW which seemed in competition with the approaching storm to the WSW.
This went on for over half an hour when the thunder started to get louder and then, the hail, at 3:30am. It was about marble sized hail which after about ten minutes turned to serious downpour for another half hour then it stopped raining while another thunder cloud moved into place to repeat the process but without the hail.
At this point, a fifth cloudburst is dumping a moderate to intense rain on us.
All this rain in between hot days has kept the rivers high and not far from flood stage. I went over near Red Lodge yesterday and observed some of the damage along the Stillwater River, it was extensive. All along all the rivers, for hundreds of miles, the banks and flood planes are littered with debris, mostly splintered wood and remnants of trees. I was there as part of a transport for a friend and didn't have my camera with me so I didn't get pictures but it looks a lot like the pictures I posted of the Yellowstone River just hours after the flood surge. What I also noticed was that the Beartooth Mountains still have quite a bit of snow up above 8-9000ft which means the rivers will stay high for at least another couple weeks since we also appear to have a bit of rain coming yet.
At least we haven't started burning down yet and it's already July.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Also, how many kitty carriers do you need for the boys? I've never tried to put more than one animal in a carrier, they may get crazy under stress, or not.
