Summer storms

Many parts of the USA are experiencing drought right now, but in my neck of the woods, we've had plenty of rain lately. In fact, we had so much in the Charlotte area yesterday that there was some flooding around the SouthPark and Quail Hollow areas and along McMullen Creek. And sometime yesterday afternoon, parts of the roof collapsed at a local mall. You may have heard about this on TV (it made the national news) or read about it. It just so happens that I work within walking distance of this mall (as in, two blocks away) and visit it fairly often. Sadly, several of my favorite stores were hit hard, and it sounds like they won't be opening for a while.

The photos here were taken last week near Mint Hill, North Carolina as we traveled along I-485 at [the speed limit, of course]. I was a passenger, not the driver. At first, I thought I was seeing the beginnings of a tornado -- but they were just weird clouds.

Summer has been incredibly hot, and we've had several days of 100F temps. For my readers outside the USA, that's about 37C. So yeah, HOT. But in this part of the world, it's the humidity that makes it really hard. Some days it's so humid, I break into a sweat just going to the mailbox and back. So a big THANK YOU to the person who invented air conditioning. Because if not for A/C, I'd have to move to Antarctica. :)