After a week of rain, fog and cold, I was happy to see the sun today. Sun and cloudless skies this morning. I checked the weather to see when I could get in a ride today. Despite the deceptive cloudless sky, it was calling for a thunderstorm between 1 and 2 o’clock. I thought I’d better get it together and get out early. Early for me is 11 am. Leaving at 11 the clouds were slowly starting to build. I figured I easily had two hours before any storm hit. I planned a 30 mile route in my head.
At 12:15 when I was 16 miles from home I noticed the dark clouds building more. I checked the weather on my phone. All of a sudden it had gone from a calm sunny day to a Severe Thunderstorm Warning. I turned for home and was hoping to get home before the heavy storms reached me. I finally determined the storms were moving very fast and I wasn’t going to make it home. I wasn’t too worried. I came prepared with a rain jacket. I planned in my in my head where all the possible places I could take cover were. Mostly underpasses or picnic shelters along the way. As I passed one of the spots, it started to rain. A few minutes later it tuned into a deluge. I was completely soaked within minutes. There was very little lightening with the storm. So I wasn’t concerned about that. The amount of lightening often diminishes as a storm approaches Lake Superior, for some reason. Ten minutes later the wind started to gust to 40 mph. The temperature dropped quickly. From 74 degrees to 54 degrees in the matter of a few minutes. And then, it was over. 15 minutes later, as I approached home, the blue sky returned. That was one fast moving storm.
four season cycling 