The Great Ohio Storm of 2012

For once I actually had a plan for what I wanted to write about this week. And then Friday happened, leaving me to write about the weather. Only this hasn’t been your typical weekend of weather.

Like most of the country, Ohio’s weather had been set on broil last week. So when I first saw the radar on Friday afternoon, I thought, great, it’s about time we get some rain!

And then I checked back and saw the radar’s colors turning into deep shades of red and then pink. Aaron was driving home from Dayton, with the storm right behind him, and I realized he wouldn’t be able to get the kids from summer camp before the storm hit. So I jumped in the car and raced towards the camp, trying to mentally will the traffic in front of me to part so I could get back home before the skies opened up.

It wasn’t meant to be, though. As I strapped the girls into the car, I saw the blackness covering the northwest skies. As we were up on I-670, I could see the storm coming, lead by what can only be described as a wall of dust and wind. I’ve never seen anything like it, and of course I was driving so I couldn’t get any photos.

I took the next exit, deciding that being lower on city streets was probably better than being up high with no protection, just as the wall hit us. The car rocked hard to the side as dust and debris swirled around us.

The next thirty minutes of the drive home felt like I was in the movie Twister, only the inner city version.

Despite our reputation as cow-town, no cows went flying past me, although I did have to change course due to falling trees, dodge panicked drivers who were blowing through red lights (or lights with no power in many intersections), try to see through pounding rain that my windshield wipers couldn’t keep up with, and even brake hard once as a piece of drywall soared across my path.Well…you don’t see that everyday.

To make things worse, cell service went down, too, so I couldn’t call anyone to find out what the hell was going on or which way to take to get home.

We made it home safely, if a little shaken. Thankfully, our house still had power. The fence kept our patio furniture from going to Oz and our trees were still standing. A huge portion of Columbus wasn’t so lucky, and many folks may not get their electric back until the end of the week. I can’t imagine having no power during another week of 90+ degree temperatures.

I’m hoping power will be restored for everyone ASAP. And I’m so grateful to still have electricity and air conditioning, even after another powerful storm rolled through Sunday evening and bent my trees nearly in half. (They didn’t break! Go trees!)

This was yet another not-so-subtle reminder from Mother Nature that we’re all just playing on her property and she reserves the right to kick us out at any time. Message received. Now please lay off the big storm dramatics, nature – we don’t want our daily lives to be episodes of Storm Chasers.