vastateofmind

Glad to hear! We have a white dipladenia which has grown BONKERS in the heat/humidity over the past several weeks, easily twice the size (and double/triple the amount of blooms!) that's pictured here...which ended up FACE DOWN on the back patio with the wind/rain over the past hour. I dodged the lightning bolts, ran out and upended it, and it seems no worse for the wear.

I was really being a smartass, but to your point...yeah, why DON'T folks take cover underground at Metro? When I was a single dude living in the District in the early 90s, I got caught in numerous, heinous thunderstorms in the summertime, often while I was commuting the middling 1-3 stops on Metro....and I would be all, "Oh, HELL NO, I ain't going above ground yet!!!"

I don't have IMBY rain measurement, but you're not far from me and it was easily that amount here...and yeah, it was definitely an intense storm! Sorry to hear about tomatoes and basil...some of the absolute best summertime cooking ingredients...being potentially damaged. So, you have been spanked several times over the past week, week and a half, and we've had that split thing going on here in the southern burbs of the District during that time. But today, MAN...it was pretty bad. One of the upshots is that the rain was pelting the southern-facing front of our house (and WTF is up with THAT?) SO hard, that I don't need to get to that front-of-the-house power washing quite as quickly now.

Great video, and hope you and your kiddos are okay. This one was not the worst I experienced....but it was pretty bad for NoVA!

Yeah. during any thunderstorm I experienced as a child or teen growing up in northcentral PA, I was raised by my (arguably) overreactive parents to: Stay away from the windows! Turn off anything plugged into a wall! Don't run any water faucets, and SURE AS HELL don't take a shower! HIDE UNDER THE BED!!! Having said all that...somewhat tongue in cheek...I will observe that most folks under the age of 35 have zero respect for the potential damage (or death) that severe weather can inflict, and honestly, some are simply not smart (or respectful) enough to GTFO of, oh, say, potential 60-80 mph straight line winds or extra-heavy lightning. I mean...c'mon. Much of this shit is common sense. If you're electing to stay out in the open in Dupont Circle, during a storm like THIS....you're just f*cking asking for it.

This is our most intense thunderstorm of the season thus far. And I have two, fairly tall (> 8') butterfly bushes in front of my house, both of which I've observed COMPLETELY bending over in this storm, so...might have to cut them back earlier than usual this season. :/

THIS. Just finished mowing the back lawn about 20 min ago, with...literally...blue skies all around me, but I was shocked to hear a surprisingly earth-rumbling peal of thunder, and they've been coming in successive, booming waves ever since. And this has since happened...something wicked this way comes, likely from SW DC and Arlington County. Even darker now.

Always interesting to see how some animals react to impending severe weather. Our yellow Lab is not the least bit scared of loud noises, booms, fireworks, etc. But if there's an incoming bad storm, she gets generally more skittish, will stare out the front window more often, and stay continually by my side. But that storm y'all had last night must have been quite epic. I typically glance at Windy.com for quick checks on radar, and I noticed last evening that storm that hit you guys last night was the angriest-looking, dark red/magenta blob I've seen on that radar perhaps ever...and the animated lightning strokes were literally non-stop in and around the storm, the entire time it marched past you, into DE and to the coast. I nearly did a screencap because it was THAT intense on radar. We experienced that split yesterday here. Apocalyptic cloud formations and lots of lightning to our north and south, but sunset kept trying to break out to our west. And very little rain.

That is indeed a breathtaking picture. I just went digging back through your posting content on your profile...as I THINK you might have been the person to post a picture last winter (maybe the one before?) of the sun rising over a country-ish road, with ice lining all of the tree branches and it, too, was an amazing pic. Am I remembering that correctly?

@wxdude64 ninja'd me but yeah...good luck and please try not to catch any balls with your face again, m'kay?

You've just reminded me....I need to renew my Radarscope subscription.

We are driving out to Grand Canyon the last two weeks of Aug into 1st week of Sep...taking 4-5 -ish days to go out, same to come back, and stay 2-3 days at at GC in between, with the idea of staying in a different town/state each night on the trip that we've never visited. My wife and I have flown over that part of the country countless times...but I want to SEE it FROM the ground for a change! Two minor stops I'm looking forward to seeing -- Winslow, AZ (where, apparently, there's a statue/park dedicated to the famous line from the Eagles' song "Take It Easy") and Truth or Consequences, NM, to visit not just their apparently famous hot springs but also to have bragging rights that we've visited "Truth or Consequences, NM."

Now up to 99/72, under blue, clear skies. Hot AF.

Yeah, I kinda expected worse. Left Fort Belvoir about half hour ago under partly cloudy conditions and it was bearable outside...but since arriving home in the last few minutes, full sun has appeared and I suspect conditions are gonna get a whole lot toastier here shortly...already 97/73 IMBY.

I don't know...the STW that's still up just doesn't seem justified for close-in DC, based on ongoing radar. I'm seeing a few new towers going up S/E of my location, in the same area that had towers building just after the lunch hour...with nothing happening going west of there to I-81...and then only down around Harrisonburg/Staunton.

Congrats. mattie! I've no doubt that your swimmers, as well as you and the rest of the parents deserve it. And, oh yeah...Overlee...and "sportsmanship"...like, in the same sentence:

Thank you for your truly insightful comments. You have no idea how right you are. My oldest son tried his damndest to be a decent lacrosse player from late elementary school right up until the end of HS...and then he played on University of Mary Washington's LAX team, as a very average player. Good, not great. And his challenge was that he put lacrosse in front of all of his other sports flirtations (e.g., football, basketball, cross country) because he thought that lacrosse was the one sport that he "had a shot at." Until he went up against teammates who had played lacrosse from the time until they could literally walk with a stick in their hand. He finished out his four years of collegiate lacrosse....but because of having to compete with incredible lacrosse athletes from the Baltimore area at the time...and just poor to middling collegiate coaches....he's never returned to the sport, not even on a recreational level, since. That breaks my heart. My younger son enjoyed a natural affinity and talent for swimming early on, which morphed into great results in summer swim, and then when he elected to go to year-round competitive swimming towards the end of elementary school, he was able to refine those skills and enjoy some success on the regional DMV level and even the national level. He recruited to a number of D2 and one D1 schools. But when he finished his performance at the HS state competition in Richmond toward the end of his senior year...he was in literal tears when he admitted to his mother and I that he didn't think he could swim in college, or maybe ever again. He was completely burnt out. And sadly, HE hasn't swum recreationally or otherwise ever since then. We felt like the shittiest parents back then...and we still do. We THOUGHT that was what he wanted to pursue. So, yeah....would we do it differently? Absolutely. HOW would we do it differently? Well for starters, I would have encouraged both sons to stick to trying...and ENJOYING...a variety of sports and not hyper-focus on just ONE F*CKING sport for years at a time. I know my oldest son would've enjoyed a variety of intramural sports at the collegiate level, as opposed to pouring everything into lacrosse with middling results. My youngest, I don't know. But for anyone reading this, think about pushing your children to try a variety of sports. This specialization bullshit from an early age...yeah, NO. We can't do it over...but I hope someone can learn from our experience.

The "culture infection" can certainly be a concern. As I said, my younger son tended to qualify for all-star meets as he grew older...and I despised going to them, because of the arrogance, the cockiness, the outright unsportsmanlike conduct that (often, not always) reared its ugly head once you started competing with swimmers and their families from, say, the top 5 divisions in NVSL. Absolutely hated it.

Yeah, this was not what was being pitched just a few hours ago. The way these numbers spiked even within 2-3 hours is sort of shocking.

I missed the kids departing at start of relays discussion up above....and I'm with you all. That's unacceptable. There were plenty of times when my guys did NOT make relays...but we made them stay to the end. Demonstrating good sportsmanship is as important on the deck and in the team area, as it is when you're in the water. And, well...again, you guys get it. Too many parents don't. Summer swim should be developmental AND fun....I think that concept is completely lost in the top three divisions in NVSL, having been replaced by draw-blood, cutthroat levels of competition. Who the hell wants to compete in THAT kind of division???

Yeah, radar LOOKED like you all got nailed today. We got some much needed gentle rains here this A.M.

You both give voice to the conundrum that most of us upper (or is it actually lower?) NVSL-affiliated pools face at this point in the season...we want to be competitive, but PLEASE don't move us too far up in the NVSL divisions!!! And @H2O is being far too modest. His pool, and the entire community of families that comprise their pool membership, have always been GREAT to work with, and to do swim meets with. It's a bit sad that he, or anyone from his pool, would ever be made to feel that their pool (and "pool" of officials/volunteers) would be somehow "less than" or not have the "niceties" when it comes to NVSL "standards" -- because I always loved when we went to his pool, and worked with their families. His pool is one of the BEST....both facilities-wise AND people-wise. Unfortunately, those kinds of crap attitudes come from the pools comprising the top two divisions in NVSL...and I know that, because our neighborhood pool volunteers and officials (which hosted league-wide IM and Relay Carnival meets a decade or so ago) heard first-hand the nasty, vulgar and judgmental comments that came from those 10 or so pools that comprise the top two NVSL divisions. That's about the time when my attitudes on NVSL soured. But again, for you younger parents....I'm glad and hopeful that your experiences and community-building remain untinged from that kind of nastiness.

Sort of rooting for this to hold together. As I believe @BlizzardNole mentioned a bit further up, there's nothing better than strobe light-ish lightning in a particularly humid atmo at nighttime this time of year. I remember that happening often when I was growing up in northcentral PA...haven't seen it as much living in NoVA.

Meant to ask this long ago -- has it been your experience that you get the influence of additional breezes off of the bay or ocean, given your location, as opposed to us "western shore'ers?"