Its Best To Be Alert!

  One sure thing about living on a bayou, you can depend on the weather changing at the drop of a hat.  Without notice, things can go from sunshiny to dreary, from slick calm to raging winds, from peaceful to threatening.  Just this afternoon, the weather did a flip-flop.  Early in the day, the sun was shining and a cool breeze wafted across the water.  Things were most perfect.  It seemed to be an ideal day to sit on the pier with fishing pole in hand so that is just what I did.  All was well with the world or, at least, with my little world.  Then things changed.  Within a matter of minutes, the weather went downhill  to the point that I thought it might be in my best interest to get up to the Little Bayou House!

  Before I could reel in the lines and "clean up" the pier a bit, an ominous black cloud made up across the Bay.  As I hurried to gather up my belongings, I kept a weather eye on that horizon.  Things looked a bit too threatening.  I just "felt" that a waterspout would be in the making.  Sure enough, as that black cloud moved eastward, a spout did form right in the middle.  No sirens, no alarms...just rough weather.  

  After I eased my way back up the pier, I could hear thunder in the distance and feel the cool air that the rain would bring but...it never came.  The whole system moved to the east and left the area before more than a sprinkle could find its way to the garden.  A few moments later, and the sunbeams poked through the clouds and I headed fishing once again.  For twenty minutes, it looked as if a storm would pound us, then it was gone leaving nary a trace.  Crazy!

Wild Weather!

The first of a series of waterspouts viewed from the pier this morning!

Today started well enough. A sudden shower made me have to rush around closing windows so I was "up and at 'em" early. After a good cup of coffee, I took both dogs out and to the pier. As I was making the walk down the long stretch of the pier that is over marsh, I thought of how remarkably serene the Bay looked. Mark had mentioned a possible fishing outing since the rain had stopped. I had to agree that from the looks of things, this was probably a wonderful idea. That is until I reached the end of the pier and realized that my serene, calm weather was not near what I thought.

A double waterspout! A small one is in front of the larger!

Another double with the smaller tailing the larger!

To the south and east of us, I could see heavy clouds on the horizon. Below these clouds it was strikingly bright even though I could tell that there were rain showers popping in the distance. Then I saw the first. From the edge of the cloud, a small dip started dropping from the main cloud..WATERSPOUT! I was impressed! I had been trying to film or photograph a spout for quite some time but had never been in the right place at the right time. Now there was one forming right in front of my eyes! My brother was on his pier and he pointed at the waterspout! I nodded and started with the camera. He then told me that he had seen one while on his porch earlier in the morning and it seemed to be a large one. We watched as this one scooted across the horizon toward the northeast. Then another formed directly south of us. This one followed the same path. Then another and another. These things were making up one after another! It was enthralling in an unsettling sort of way. I took picture after picture of each full-fledged spout and even some of the "wannabe" spouts..those that would start to form but for some reason never full developed.

This one proved to be quite impressive!

The long, slender funnel cloud like waterspouts just kept forming!

All in all, I counted seventeen formed waterspouts that crossed the horizon in the hour or so that I was on the pier. The wannabes were just too numerous to even try to number. I must say that I was impressed with this weather phenomenon...not just because of the spouts but also the calmness of the surrounding area. The clouds made for a beautiful sunrise with the reflection in the still waters equally gorgeous! It is amazing to me that these funnel clouds can be so near yet where I was standing, it was placid! What a morning!

With all of the wild weather around me, there was still a gorgeous sunrise!

The reflection in the water was equally as impressive!