I have been working a lot lately, and had a day off today, so I decided to go on an adventure. I hiked Pleasant Mountain in Bridgton. It was a great hike, and something rare and interesting happened on the drive back home. It was just starting to rain when I got onto US 302 to go back home. Almost my whole way home, which was about an hour, it was raining over my car, but I could see blue sky in front of me. In the straighter portions of road I could even see dry pavement ahead.
I don’t think I have ever seen something like this before, or at least not for nearly as long. So instead of storm chasing, I got chased by a storm.
Almost the same thing happened to me about 20 or more years ago as I drove east on the Trans-Canada through Saskatchewan in winter.
I stayed ahead of the storm that I could see in the mirror by speeding mightily, but I didn’t think any cop would be out to stop me, because of the weather forecasts that were for only a few minutes into the future. And I didn’t want to be trapped by a blizzard on the highway. I had gassed up in Regina, so I knew I could get to Brandon about 200 miles away even with the pedal to the metal, if the storm didn’t catch up.
I finally outran it to the extent that I couldn’t see it anymore, and continued sedately into Manitoba, past Brandon and into Winnipeg.
The storm hit Winnipeg a few hours later and the cops closed the Trans-Canada.
It’s really cool when the edge of a rain cloud is so distinct.
I was in town once and there was a clap of thunder. Moments later, it was raining - absolutely pissing down - but only one one side of the road.
On one side, people rushing and huddling under umbrellas - on the other side, people walking around calmly in their shirt sleeves or standing, watching in amazement at the wet people behind/inside the curtain of water in the middle of the road.
It persisted for what seemed like an unreasonably long time, but was probably only about a minute and a half really.
At my apartment, it was a rainstorm of biblical quality. Two buildings over, people were sunning themselves at the pool.
And yes, I once remember chasing clear weather while traveling up from FL to NC. The whole time, I was right at the start of the rain. When I gassed up, it would catch up and I had to speed off to get ahead of it again.
I tend to remember the times I’ve driven into rainstorms, where you can see the line clearly ahead and the cars coming at you with their lights on, the line getting closer and closer…and then you go from dry to wet in what seems like an instant.
But yes, I’ve had to outrun storms too. In fact it was raining hard at my house this am, but I managed to get the 10 miles east to work in time to get inside in a light sprinkle, before the thunderboomers arrived.
I was having a beer a few days ago (imagine that!) and a friend told me his wife just called and was in a rainstorm a few miles away, yet it wasn’t raining where we were*.
I pulled up weather radar on my tablet and showed him what was happening. He was dumbstruck. He is in his late 60s and just got his first cellphone. He called his wife back and told her that if she waited five minutes the rain would stop, and he felt like a seer.
- of course it never rains in the bar. One of my favorite sayings.
Driving through rural New Mexico one time we noticed how under a clear blue sky there first developed just a tiny whiff of a cloud. As we drove along it began to grow along our direction of travel and soon captured our attention as it got bigger, longer and then developed into a full-blown front with nasty conditions chasing us all the way into Colorado. It was an amazing and educational transformation to witness.
I can recall as a kid I experienced a summer weekend rain storm where for what seemed like 10 minutes it was pouring rain in our front garden and not a drop was falling in the vacant lots along the other side of the road. It was a hot day and we ended up with all the neighborhood kids in their swimming gear alternately soaking and drying themselves. It’s one of my clearest childhood memories.
Are you sure you’re not a rain god?
I was driving once from Fort Collins Up through Poudre canyon. There was a storm with a leading edge of hail I swear was only 500 yard wide.
I was trying to outrun it, but because of the switch backs I kept having to drive right back through it. Sun,hail, rain,hail sun, hail, rain, hail, sun. etc.
I would have been much smarter to just pull over for 15 and smoke it out, but I kept thinking I could make it if I just got a mile or 2 of straight.
Just last week there was a very short, very intense rainstorm while I was at work. Apparently my building was right on the line because it was bone dry out my office window, and pouring rain in the courtyard on the other side.
In South Florida it’s a bit less rare .I’ve seen rain/no-rain areas three or four times. The most entertaining was a guy who was walking down the street in front of me and he suddenly encountered a wall of rain. He flinched and then just stopped and stared at the rain falling just feet in front of him. Of course, a few seconds later it washed over him and then me.
Several years ago we were out on our boat on Lake George. We had been inside cooking and eating lunch, but when we came back out on deck, all we could see was this huge, black, wall of water coming towards us. The wasn’t time to pull the anchor, so all we could do was sit and watch as it moved toward us.
It was creepy to see such a clearly defined curtain of water.
My grandmother lives on the St. John’s River. My brother and I used to like hanging out on the dock, and from time to time when it rained, you could see the edge of the rain approaching very clearly as it trampled the surface of the river. Fun to wait for it to get close, then try to beat it to the house!
I like seeing the edge of a shower. My most memorable was when I was a kid. I was in the woods behind my house and the ground was covered by inches of dry leaves, the kind that are loud and crunchy as you walk. Suddenly I heard a loud rustling sound in the distance that kept getting closer and closer. I couldn’t figure out what it was. A herd of something running through the forest toward me? I must have listened for 30 seconds as it got closer and closer but I couldn’t see anything. I started to freak out a little, it was like a herd of ghosts or something. Then it finally hit me, literally. Rain. Duh.
A few years ago I was riding in the car with my mother, and we were on one side of a divided highway. On our side, it was raining cats and dogs. On the other side, it was bone-dry. Damndest thing.
I experienced this in Wisconsin some years ago. I was visiting some relations in the middle of nowhere and got cut short by some tornado activity. I followed the leading edge of the storm on the way out while the emergency broadcast system kept calling out the name of whatever town I just left warning of high winds and damage to structures and death. Blue skies ahead, black swirling death behind. It was surreal.
In the Seattle area, they have what they call the convergence zone. Weather systems come in off the Pacific, hit the Olympic Mountains, split in two then converge at a point just north of Seattle. Strange weather can happen in this area. One bright sunny day I was driving a vanpool south on I-405. Just ahead I saw some real dark clouds in a narrow band. As I drove under the clouds there was a fierce hail storm. For about a quarter mile everything was white. Came out on the other side to bright sunshine.