We have been experiencing more of this very non-English type of rain over the last few weeks.
The day starts bright, before clouds begin to gather late morning. Sometimes the sky turns black & there is a very localised & fortunately short-lived deluge. I have managed to avoid being outside underneath one of these, though we have twice been through one on the bus when it has seemed that the driver might have to stop, & another driver told me of going through one on Monday when he couldn’t see, despite the wipers being on full.
Although we think of this kind of rain as belonging to the tropics rather than temperate climes, I remember having to pull up at the side of the road on several occasions during the summer I spent in the Ardennes in the early Sixties – but then windscreen wipers were much less efficient back in those days.
On Wednesday I wasn’t quite so lucky – the sky was black when I got to town & rain was beginning to plop. I judged that I had a better chance of keeping dry if I scurried across to the shopping centre rather than take the time to retrieve rain jacket & umbrella from my bag. I just about made it, though not before there was an almighty clap of thunder.
I was standing safely under a roof as the rain came really sheeting down, being blown across the open surface outside by a stiff squalls coming from the west.
I realised that my foot was getting wet, despite the overhead protection. Looking down I found I was standing on one of the small drain covers – no more than 6” square - which dot the brick-paved surface; water was bubbling up round the edges.
Two more claps of thunder & then it was over in not much more than 10 minutes.
But there has been lots blue sky in between, with scattered cumulus & sun. And some magnificent rainbows.
By about seven o’clock every evening the squalls have disappeared completely, leaving sun, clear skies & a stunning evening light.
There was another rainbow just as I arrived home on Wednesday. Viewed through the windscreen of the bus it made a perfect semi circular arc above the hill & the transmitter, seeming to reach down to end exactly where our house hides on the valley floor below.
Though if the rainbow left a crock of gold, I haven’t found it yet.
