Close Call for Rain

 Nearly a week ago, on July 14, after a hot, dry day, I happened to look out a south window and see a billowing cumulus cloud, its top lit by the setting son. I worried about waking Mom if I went outside - the security system warns us when an outside door has been opened - as I looked at her sound asleep in her tiny bunk bed, snoring quietly.

 I climbed the steps and brushed my teeth instead as the cloud inched nearer. At last I grabbed my camera and headed out into the yard. It was still nearly 90° and almost as humid and I stepped into the crunchy, dry grass.

 There, due south, was the cumulus, built to incredible heights, and bearing the soft, orange-apricot glow of the setting sun. It was a powerful sight surrounded as it was by mostly blue sky.

 I looked at radar and saw that this storm had dropped rain on Cincinnati and was traveling north and westward, still just south of Middletown as I took this shot. The sun, already set, cast its light on only the very top of the cloud, making it that much more unique.

 A wider view shows our next nearest neighbors to the south. The cloud looked to me as though an atomic bomb had been detonated in the distance and the mushroom cloud was rising quickly through the atmosphere. Instead, it was a gentle, friendly rain-maker.

To the southwest, the waxing moon completed the view. I stood there in the end-of-day heat, saw the rain scooting by to our south and west and missing us completely. As of today, we've had just 0.05" of rain in the past 13 days. It is brutally dry for the lawn and garden and I have to drag a hose around and water, particularly my new grass seed, each evening.

 Before I stepped back inside, I looked to our west, the usual direction we'd expect to get our weather from. But not tonight. These dark clouds were moving west, away from the Miami Valley. They had the appearance of a mountain range in the distance.

 And so a quiet night was ahead. I heard no thunder as the storm retreated and it blessed us with not a single drop of rain. As near as Moyer Road in German Twp. they had a brief downpour.