Freaky Weather

Well, today the weather has been something else.  I was in Melton Mowbray with Emily at a dentist appointment when a large storm hit the region the start of which was signalled by street lights coming on in the town as the skies darkened at nearly two in the afternoon to the light levels you would expect at dusk. Then rain hit, the wind picked up and the hailstones fell. Thankfully we were safely inside. It was like someone had opened a giant tap above the town.

 Just before the storm hit Melton Mowbray

 The storm rolling into Rutland

 The dark clouds over the village

 Flooded roads in Leicester 

A four by four stuck in the floods in Leicester

As we returned home we to Rutland we watched the centre of the storm to the west of us. We saw the lightening and heard massive thunder claps as we went down the road. All the time we could see the edge of the storm moving in behind us and coming our way. After dropping Emily off back at school the skies in the village had turned almost black and the rain began to fall but thankfully it was short lived.

Thankfully we were on on the edge of the storm. The full force of it hit the city of Leicester to the west of us. It turned roads into rivers according to people in the area. Soon websites and twitter were full of images of flooded roads, fallen trees and cars stuck in the water. As time went on reports started to appear about damage done by the size of the hailstones and the wind at the centre of the storm which ripped tiles off the roofs of houses. Pictures were posted of cars with dents in them and of the hailstones themselves that were the size of golfballs if not bigger.

Thankfully nobody died in the area or seems to have been seriously hurt, but all the same the damage done to property and cars by the storm will cost a pretty penny to put right. The lucky ones will be insured the unlucky ones not. It not the sort of weather you see to often but it is becoming more common as the effects of global warming kick in. One has to ask what sort of legacy have we left our children by our over use of fossil fuels and deforestation.