We are under particular Tornado Warnings/Watches this evening. Just a while ago, oh about an hour ago already, I heard a bunch of rumblings to the South, and sure enough it was dark out that way, and lighting could be seen cloud to cloud. It then started to be the more dangerous type, ground to cloud. So I looked online and found there and on TV as well that Walton county had Tornado Warning on, and there was an immensely red and yellow cell from the most outer feeder band of Katrina there … and that county is not far away, in fact just below us.
Lightening action was intense for awhile, then seemed to pass by to the North. The TV radar is still showing very active cells below us though. So we’ll see what happens locally IRL. I turned the computer off and the network and phone stuff for awhile, but turned it on again to see what’s happening and to post this.
Frank is in Florida and can’t call me anyhow, so I wanted to get this online so he might see it. Our phone service is not working. DSL is though. We have vonage through DSL too, but that’s not working either. We only have one phone, so I can’t tell what’s up. Well, actually we do have another, the fax machine. I just went down and plugged it in, but it gives me the same “open” connection sound. I haven’t tried it in another jack, all jacks are connected daisy-chained anyhow. It’s weird though, that the modem can connect to the internet via the phone jack, but that vonage box isn’t connecting to vonage and neither is dial tone for local service that the DSL is through. Weird, weird, weird. It all started sometime this afternoon, I’m not sure when, there was no lightening around at all then.
The rain has been light since it started when I last posted. Steady at times, but never heavy. Just a light tropical rain. Before all the lightening was getting intense I was out looking at the clouds in the front of the house and had my camera, snapping a few things, and a Ruby-Throat Hummingbird came by. So I went in and made up some sugar water for them and filled the one feeder I have out there. I had filled it last week, but never saw them drink from it. I saw a hummer and so did Frank, but never did we see it feed. The feeder dripped dry. So I watched tonight after I put it out and there were two hummers that came back and were playing and flew to the feeder many times, back and forth here and there in the trees, across the street, zipping back and forth between all these and other things.
I got a few pictures, but they were blurry, and then I might have gotten a few better ones with the Hosta’s, but I have to check that out still. My hostas have some that bloom earlier and some that bloom later. The white blossoms are out now. The hummers fed on a few and that’s the time I snapped what might be croppable to blow up a bit.
It was lightly raining at that time, a time that hummers love to play in, I’ve noticed in past years. This is the first interaction I’ve had with hummers in a long time. Last year wasn’t heavy hummer time for us, and this year not at all until today. It was refreshing to see the hummers play in front of me. 🙂
The lightening we had was refreshing too. Many cracks and booms and rumbles, and daggers and forks of lightening. Ah!
So being under Tornado Warnings is about actual spotted Tornadoes tonight, as well as weather being primed massively by the tropical system to just expect sudden tornadoes in the weather, often maybe diguised in heavy rain and not noticeable until it’s too late if you aren’t in a safe spot … then you are toast. So of course I was out on the porch watching. I wasn’t standing in the open, but I guess it’s a spot that’s not recommended in any case. I saw nothing but nice clouds, gentle rain, and massive lightinging here and there. There were notices on TV of spotted tornadoes, but in directions not exactly affecting us, so I was just watching carefully, enjoying the weather phenoms.
I’ll have some photos to post later, if any of the hummers or night cloud photos turned out.