Angry Sky

At first, yesterday's thunderstorms in Ottawa looked as though they were going to miss Barrhaven. Just a bit of rain, at most.

The bulk of the storm system looked to be tracking further north, closer to the Ottawa River and into Gatineau, on the other side. Indeed, when I was in video meetings with counterparts in Québec, I was being told that some of my colleagues where receiving lots of rain, hail, thunder, and lightning.

As I spoke to them, I looked out my home-office window, which faces north, and the sky looked black. When our meeting wrapped up, I stepped outside and took the following snapshot.

There was plenty of cloud movement and I could see flashes of lightning, followed several seconds later by distant thunder. But there was no rain in Barrhaven.

Until recently, we've talked about a "Barrhaven Bubble," in which we'd experience clear skies while in the downtown core, torrential rains fell. My neighbourhood seemingly escaped severe weather.

This year, however, that seems to have changed. Last month, two tornadoes touched down in Barrhaven. We've had lots of rain and hail. Our weather patterns have changed from the norm, as though the "Barrhaven Bubble" had finally burst.

Yesterday, as the skies darkened further overhead, I went indoors and took another photo of the sky: this time, from Kid 1's bedroom window.

The sky, indeed, was angry.

I checked my Weather Network app and the radar showed that a band of the storm was north of us, moving from the southwest, toward the northeast, and seemed to be going to miss my area, though a strong system was going to pass over us. It was only a matter of time.

Within about 15 minutes, rain began to fall, growing more intense with each minute. Thunder crashed overhead. Hail fell. Water backed up in sewer drains and crept up our driveway, to the highest levels I've ever seen.

The lights flickered a couple of times, causing our Internet router to restart twice. The storm was intense and lasted for hours.

Though there was extensive flooding throughout Ottawa, Barrhaven was largely spared. Still, the bubble seems to be no more.

I hope you were safe through this and other storms that we've experienced this summer.

Have a happy Friday.