I was in the house, typing an email to a friend, listening to the sound of rain hitting the roof...
when the sound of the storm almost instantly accelerated to an enormous howl... and the sound of rain changed to the sound of hail... ping-pong ball sized hail hitting the roof in very large numbers.
Then, almost instantly, the howling sound in the wind changed to a very angry roar.
This next probably sounds idiotic... but I opened the patio door to see what was happening... [go figure!]
I saw rain flying horizontally... at a speed I could not at first even comprehend.
I slammed the door... thinking "Tornado!!!"... and ran to the "safe spot" in my home.
The wind, the rain, the hail and the awful noise lasted about five to eight minutes... and then... it was all gone.
I took a quick look at the shade tree and it appeared to be OK... and a quick glance at the shade garden didn't elicit any concern.................
and a bit later I went to sleep.
This morning I called the National Weather Service [one of their facilities is about 20 miles away] and asked what had happened.
They asked where in Oklahoma City I lived... I told them... and the meteorologist said, "Oh, you live there."
Somehow "there" sounded ominous.
He then explained that my little area of town had experienced [I'm not going to get the terminology right] a short-lived "micro-burst" with winds that were clocked at 100-110 mph.
At that point I went out and took a better look at the shade garden. The plants were still there... but almost all of them looked just like the ones in the photographed pot...
sheared off about a foot above ground as if they had been mown.
No one was hurt last night, no homes or cars in this area were damaged, fallen tree limbs lay around... but not as many as I would have thought.
Those are the important things about last night.
I've never seen a garden move from fall and potential fall color to winter dormancy in ten minutes time.
Quite an experience.
