Nellie"s Needles

Friday, June 13, 2008

Strange Weather

Since we had arrived a week ago today, there have been the strangest weather systems coming from the west across the lake. There most definitely are a few lake series quilts that will result from the tremendous storms we've experienced.

Several of us took photos trying to capture the magnificence and feeling of this approaching storm on Sunday.
Our son, Kemper, was the most successful with his new, wide angle digital camera. There was much lightening in this fast approaching rolling wave of clouds. Of the many shots taken, this is the only one that captured a streak.
At the point in the photo below we vacated the deck overlooking the beach with a fast retreat into the cottage. We thought surely there would be water spouts (tornadoes over water) dipping down from these rolling cloud banks, but we didn't spot any.
Soon after getting inside the cottage we were under the edge of that storm. It took about twenty minutes from the time we noticed that strange bank of clouds on the horizon until this point.
This photo was taken that same Sunday morning after the huge thunder storm the night before.
The inner lake that connects to Lake Michigan via the channel with the big red lighthouse had flooded the road. My husband has been coming here for over seventy years and has never seen this phenomenon. Once in a while there has been a big puddle over one side of the road, but never a flood.

It has rained in every twenty-four hour period since we've arrived. The temperatures have varied greatly, too. One minute it's so hot we can hardly stand it. The next we may be looking for sweaters, socks and long pants to keep warm.

I just finished getting my studio in order and machines set up. I may even get some work done on the mountain lake piece today. But first, I've got to go find some socks and put on a sweat shirt.

8 comments:

Doreen G said...

What incredible photos Nellie I have never seen anything like them.

Sequana said...

Let me tell you, from the other side of the lake in Chicago, it has been a very strange spring, weather-wise.

I've never seen winds like we've had in the last few weeks. I fear for the locust tree right outside my apt. window.

The weekend rains were furious, then the sun would come out.

arlee said...

Wow! Those are AWESOME skies for i betcha some AWESOME quilts coming up!!! Phenomenal!!

Unknown said...

I have watched these dark rolling clouds pass over us and onward to your side of the lake and wondered what the weather was like there. It has rained so much here, with thunder that just rolls! Cant wait to see your 'storm' quilts!

allie aller said...

Nellie, thanks so much for these photos....as you may remember, our family cottage is on the lake a few miles south of Whitehall, Mich. I have been thinking about Michillinda with all these crazy storms blasting east from Wisconsin...
Your pictures tell such a story. I am awed....very sorry for those in town who are flooded...I hear that Michigan needs the rain so this is really a good thing...
Keep those pics coming!
~Allie

Anne Wigfull said...

Amazing photos, Nellie.
What is worrying is that so many 'ordinary' people are recording such unusual weather phenomena and yet there are still those who deny that there is anything wrong in our world.
My apologies for calling you and yours 'ordinary', by the way :¬}}

jenclair said...

The photos are wonderful. Even if I'm more concerned about the weather than I used to be, I do love that sense of excitement when the skies perform like this!

Corryna said...

The photo's look so unreal to me. And they look like art also. Here, in the Netherlands, we also had rolling clouds in the sky, but never in the same way as they are with you.

Corryna