Stormy Weather

 I was visiting my father in the hospital, sitting beside my brother, as we watched the western horizon from our second floor vantage point at Sycamore Medical Center in Miamisburg (Room 2008-2). Every now and then bright flashes of lightning began directing our attention there. I pulled up radar after radar on my iPod as we watched the serve storms race eastward. We planned to stay with Dad until 7:30 pm but I could see that the storms would arrive at Bob's house by 7:40 pm. So we left at 7 pm and kept a quick pace getting home.
 As I approached Farmersville, traveling due west along Farmersville-West Carrollton Road, the sky turned an inky dark. It was an absolutely frightening look. After I pulled the car into the garage, I grabbed my camera and walked to the rear of our property and shot two photos and one video.

 From the middle of the back yard, I shot overhead at these mammatus clouds (that is my interpretation anyway), just forming. They hung in pendulous swirls and moved so fast that they made me dizzy.

 This shot, taken mere moments before, is looking to the west. These are the same clouds as the last picture but seen as they are still approaching. It could be that they were simply torn from the main cloud deck by the winds. Both shots were taken between 7:25 pm and 7:35 pm [05/23].
 When I took the first shot pictures, rain drops began to punctuate the sky and I ran for cover. The resultant storm was less severe than I expected though the initial gusts of wind probably neared 60 mph. Two wooden rocking chairs on our back porch were turned over, a couple of wire cages in the garden blew away and small to medium sized branches were scattered about the yard. No hail and only a little lightning. Also little rain ... 0.25" in the gauge at 8 am on 05/24/11.