These beautiful skies were caused by some haze, which in turned caused a tremendous storm overnight. I woke up to major thunder, constant lightning, and rain pounding incredibly hard on the metal roof of La Corona. I've never experienced storms like this, where you literally feel like it has surrounded the house. It was pretty awesome and lasted for a long time. The only light in the photo below was caused by a bolt of lightning.
Of course, when you have that big of a storm, you're bound to see some effects. This morning after breakfast the skies broke again, and our beautiful estate felt flooded. The center courtyard was filling fast, and major puddles formed in the uneven rock floor.
Since we're still waiting on equipment, we're at the mercy of the local employees and the slow pace of the customs office in Montevideo that is hopefully no longer holding our equipment hostage, but has set it free and it's on its way here. In any case, we had some time, so we decided to venture out and see how our study sites fared after the major storm. In one short night, the drainage area at one site that appeared to be a fairly dry ditch now overflowed with runoff. It was clear the water level had been much higher at some point because we found debris stuck in fences and stranded on bridges above the current water level. It's pretty amazing for a 1-night storm.
The plot areas now have standing water, but it appears to be a fairly normal occurrence. We checked out one site we had already installed, and all the PVC pipe corners were still there, so I'm happy. Hopefully these sites will be good and drained by the time it comes to sample. Nobody likes to sit in a puddle of water all day to count vegetation.
Hi Laura, the storms in other areas of the world can really be impressive. We are so lucky here in the northwest.
ReplyDeleteWe made chewy caramels today at work. Your Dulce de Leche made our mouths water so we had to do with the next best thing!
We love your story!
Love, Pat