The Grapes of Wrath...
 

...have not been weather witnessed in Oklahoma for a while.

I spent the weekend there and drove to Kansas City in the worst storm I've been mobile in (straight up Highway 71) for a LONG time.

I'm cruising along, tunes and a cigar, with the windows down in the high seventies at night and -- instantly -- the temperature dropped to the mid-to-low sixties like a wall.

Rain.

Thunder.

Lightening, all around for miles.

It was intense.

We have had a couple of intense storms pop up out of nowhere and disappear just as quickly here in East Tennessee. I don't remember ever seeing them come and go so fast.

Don't know about Tennessee, but big storms are common to the plains in all seasons. Mid-continental weather likes to go to extremes.

Yes, yes it does.

But that was impressive...

Just wait for the topsoil to get lofted up into the air due to this drought and we'll see some real grapes of wrath.

If we don't get some rain in my neck of the woods, there won't be grapes of any kind come harvest time.

Two weekends in August that I visited South Lake Tahoe, we had serious hail storms.

We've been having quite a few thunderstorms this late summer. The past few years have been hot and dry so this is a nice change.

The storms keep the dead branches cleared out of the trees and make good fall bonfire fodder.

Weather has been mostly perfect here this Summer.

Ours has been good too. Not too hot with plenty of rain.