And then, the deluge

So we’re sitting in the dark, watching Alias, Season 2 (DVD) with the Testerfolk. And the lightning outside is getting a tad fierce.

And Margie heads over to the computer and checks out the weather. Hrm. The van is out on the street. “If it begins to hail, can we get the van into the garage?” Tricky, since the siding folk have a huge pallet of siding on the van side of the driveway.

“I think I can maneuver the Subaru over, sure.”

So we watch a bit more.

It begins to rain.

It begins to hail.

We call a quick end to the Alias session. It’s like battle stations, all of a sudden. Jackie and Doyce head into the sudden amazingly heavy downpour to their car. Margie dashes for the van. I run upstairs to my keys, close the windows, run downstairs, jockey the Subaru around to the “wrong” side of the garage. Margie pulls in, barely fitting in the garage on the “wrong” side with the van.

And, in a few minutes, it stops. But we won’t need to run the sprinklers tomorrow, I’m thinking.

UPDATE: Margie says (and the rain gauge confirms) that in the 5 minutes or so it was raining, the tally was about a half an inch. And the storm is clocked at moving past at about 40 mph.

UPDATE: Not too amazingly, the NWS has issued “an urban and small stream flood advisory” for, among other places, “southwestern Arapahoe County in northeast Colorado” (which would be, well, us).

At 912 PM MDT… National Weather Service Doppler radar indicated a severe thunderstorm with heavy rain was pushing south-southeast across the greater Denver area. Rainfall rates of 0.50 to 1.25 inches fell in about a 20 minute period as the storms moved south-southeastward.
Locations in the advisory include… but are not limited to… western Centennial… southern Denver… Englewood… eastern Lakewood… northern Littleton… Greenwood Village and Sheridan.
Excessive runoff from this storm will cause minor flooding of small creeks and streams… urban areas… Highways… streets and underpasses as well as other drainage areas and low lying spots.

With plenty o’ hail spotted, too.

Night, all.