A VICIOUS LITTLE STORM - and I love it!

The sky looked foreboding when Shade and I launched the boat this morning.  It changed from very dark to moderately dark as the sun arose in the sky.

Bad weather was forecasted for today, but it wasn't to arrive until after 1 PM.  As usual - the forecasters were wrong.  

We headed to the string of islands that run down the center of the lake.  I like to cover their shoreline waters completely before paying attention to the edges of the lake.

The wind suddenly became very strong and whipped the surface water into one foot rolling waves (rollers).  Black clouds blocked the sun and rain began to fall.

The weather had changed in a heart beat.  I was keeping an eye on the sky and it still got us.  The wind blew harder and the waves got larger.  The boat ramp was miles away and I headed the boat for an island to try to get on a wind protected shoreline.
We weren't going to make it.  I almost couldn't see to drive the boat into the mouth of the cove.  Hooray for the GPS/map screen.

What is going on with our weather these days?  These storms are very odd and vicious.  Where did the gentle showers of the old days go?

We beached the boat and I held an old tarp up to shield the rain from Shade and myself.  The rain suit was still tucked neatly in it's carrying bag located in the --------------------truck.  A glance out across the bay from our sheltered cove proved this move to shore was a great idea.

The boat was tied and Shade and I climbed off and sat on a log under heavy foliage.  The high wind disbursed after fifteen minutes but the rain continued and cooled things off.  Later, I noticed a one degree drop in surface water temperature as we cruised back toward the launch area.  The sky remained gray and the hard rain changed to the more gentle variety.

Shade lightened up and started to act like a curious dog again.
The sky remained threatening and I decided to hang out on the island for awhile longer.

The wind increased and decreased constantly and I didn't want to chance getting caught out on the open bay if it decided to try to blow the lake away.  Cherokee Lake is a terrible lake for wind!  We'll just look around here for a few more minutes.  It was obvious the rain was not going to completely stop.

Ha - and there he was on the shoreline that lay to the left/front of us.  He was pretty far away but I thought I could photograph him.

He is an immature black crowned night heron.  He is just entering adulthood as his blackish/blue, crown plumage is just starting to show.  Where are they all coming from?

Too dark for the shot.  The shutter speed is insufficient for a crisp image.

Shade didn't care.

A glance down the shoreline indicated that now would be as good a time as any to get out of Dodge.  The water was calmed down and we took off across the big bay area and headed for German Creek.  I figured we had enough good weather left to successfully compete our morning run which included German Creek.  As it turned out, we got nailed again by heavy rain on the return trip down the creek.  

The wind came up again on the way back and whipped the surface into foot high rollers as it did previously.  At least it did not partner up with heavy rain.  Quite a morning.  We got the shift in and both of us were soaking wet.  Only one of us cared about the soaking wet part.
We are supposed to get powerful storms starting late afternoon lasting into the night with a tornado watch thrown in there for good measure.  The tornadoes will be a danger back west of here where I used to live.  That was tornado ally.  We certainly will get some very high wind and rain here, however.  Fun.  See you later - maybe.