After class today I poured myself a cup of coffee and was about to start working, but I heard thunder and went outside. The storm clouds were incredible - we could see the convection currents; clouds traveling in opposite directions and colliding. Occasionally the wind would pick up and die down - the temperature dropped at least 10 degrees suddenly.
The front was right over us and we saw frequent lightning, but a few miles away. The wind brought some raindrops, but fairly few. I took pictures and a few videos, and then the crazy clouds passed and it just looked stormy. One of us (probably me) said something doom-laden, like "that wasn't much rain". The rain began in earnest, the first few drops leaving splotches on the cement with diameters of an inch.
We stayed under the roof of the guesthouse, watching the rain, wind, and lightning. The rain came off the under-construction hall in torrents. Since these waterfalls were evenly spaced, we assumed they were intentional. However, the wind brought most of that water into the hall anways. We questioned weather the feral dogs cared about getting wet, and were happy that we had 30 minutes until we needed to leave for dinner.
Unfortunately, we were then told that dinner was earlier than normal and we needed to leave. We questioned how dangerous this actually was; walking with umbrellas would keep us a bit drier, but some of the lightning was striking within a mile. And there was very much lightning.
We departed with our umbrellas, planning to cut through the construction area since our "normal" path would (literally) be under water. The first path towards the construction site ended up becoming a small river; I doubled back and finally gave up and splashed my way under the roof of the hall. I realized that the standing water and questionable construction practices might create a greater risk of electrocution than the lightning. We made it under the roof (the construction is very far along) and walked in a dry environment most of the way. The few Indians also in the building looked as us strangely.
We had one final dash from the construction area to the main building. One of my sleeves ended up fairly soaked, but otherwise I was fine. I purposefully bought shoes for this trip that could handle this. I had just gotten very comfortable not needing to cope with storms and the rain. It looks like this might be the beginning of monsoon season, or it could still be a few days off.
The front was right over us and we saw frequent lightning, but a few miles away. The wind brought some raindrops, but fairly few. I took pictures and a few videos, and then the crazy clouds passed and it just looked stormy. One of us (probably me) said something doom-laden, like "that wasn't much rain". The rain began in earnest, the first few drops leaving splotches on the cement with diameters of an inch.
We stayed under the roof of the guesthouse, watching the rain, wind, and lightning. The rain came off the under-construction hall in torrents. Since these waterfalls were evenly spaced, we assumed they were intentional. However, the wind brought most of that water into the hall anways. We questioned weather the feral dogs cared about getting wet, and were happy that we had 30 minutes until we needed to leave for dinner.
Unfortunately, we were then told that dinner was earlier than normal and we needed to leave. We questioned how dangerous this actually was; walking with umbrellas would keep us a bit drier, but some of the lightning was striking within a mile. And there was very much lightning.
We departed with our umbrellas, planning to cut through the construction area since our "normal" path would (literally) be under water. The first path towards the construction site ended up becoming a small river; I doubled back and finally gave up and splashed my way under the roof of the hall. I realized that the standing water and questionable construction practices might create a greater risk of electrocution than the lightning. We made it under the roof (the construction is very far along) and walked in a dry environment most of the way. The few Indians also in the building looked as us strangely.
We had one final dash from the construction area to the main building. One of my sleeves ended up fairly soaked, but otherwise I was fine. I purposefully bought shoes for this trip that could handle this. I had just gotten very comfortable not needing to cope with storms and the rain. It looks like this might be the beginning of monsoon season, or it could still be a few days off.
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