All day, we’ve been under an ongoing thunderstorm watch.

Sort of.

These watches cover a massive area. Looking at the weather radar, none of it seems to be heading to us. Instead, all the systems seem to be splitting off to pass either the north or south of us.

I had been holding off watering the garden because of these possible thunderstorms, hoping we would at least get some rain. I finally started watering the old kitchen garden this morning, and it actually did start raining hard enough that I stopped and went inside, planning to continue later.

Then the power outage hit.

Finally, when it was time to head out and feed the outside cats, I planned to finish the watering.

I was still filling various bowls with kibble when my pocket started screaming at me.

We were getting a tornado warning to our cell phones, complete with instructions to find shelter.

I could hear some thunder in the distance, but there was nothing over us to suggest any sort of storm or rain, never mind a tornado.

My daughter was on her computer when her phone went off so she looked it up. It turns out that while we were in the service range for the warning, we weren’t in the geographical range. That was to the south of us. Nothing was headed our way.

So I finished feeding the cats, then wandered through the garden area, checking on things while deciding whether I was still going to water or not. I could hear equipment running and voices on the road, so I went closer to see what I could over the lilac hedge. The electric company was replacing the top of a power pole across the road from us.

I’m sure they would have gotten the same tornado warning we did and, if it had been for our geographical area, they would have been ordered to pack up and leave!

I started watering, including the new food forest additions. It was while I was there that a second tornado warning with instructions to take shelter came in.

This is what the sky looked like at the time.

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I could hear thunder from both east and west, but that was it. Once again, our climate bubble was in action.

I was able to finish watering without interruption.

We’re still supposed to get some rain today. There is a system that is supposed to actually pass over us this evening, with the more severe portions still missing us. We might get actual rain for about an hour. For all the watering I did, any rain would still be a blessing.

However, I’d still be more than happy for the rain to miss us, if it means all those fires get the rain instead. The current count is something like 700 fires across the country, making it the worst fire season in 30 years.

While the severe weather missed us, a homesteading friend who lives south of my mother’s town posted some video she took. While I was outside, watering the garden, she was getting a massive down pour, and hail started to fall while she was recording. It was absolutely insane to watch! They were under the geographical tornado warning area which, thankfully, did not happen. We are still under an ongoing severe thunderstorm watch but, from what I’m seeing on the weather radar, the system has already passed us and moving on into the next province. For our area, we might, just maybe, get some rain. Which is supposed to be happening right now, but the system split off to pass on either side of us again!

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer