Microburst!

Anyone want a branch?

Maybe it was God’s way of punishing me for my last post.  That thought had not escaped me.

But between 12pm and 1pm yesterday, I got caught in a microburst in my home here in Pinellas Park.  And I was looking right at it when it happened.

I could see it through the screen doors in the back of the house.  It looked like a typical Florida summer thunderstorm one moment, than anything but the next.  The view to the east of my home vanished, and tree branches and other objects went flying all over the place.  My landlord’s cat Harry came running out of the back room into the living room with a yelp.

“Whoa!  Look at that, Harry!” I yelled, more amazed at what was happening than scared.

When the storm died down at about 1pm, I got on my slippers and walked (or sloshed, since there was standing water all over the place) around the house, picking up all the loose branches and lawn furniture that went flying every which way.  The back room of the house had a little bit of standing water too, but that seems to happen once or twice a summer. Routine to pick that up.

Kudos to the city of Pinellas Park and their tree pick-up department, as they got quickly to work collecting the fallen trees and branches.  And there were some that I didn’t catch on my Blackberry camera. I didn’t want to be too much of a looky Lou.

A few miles away, it didn’t even rain at all.  That’s our weather for you.