Check out the first Spring storm of 2010!

The first spring storm of 2010 hit here on Sunday night. While most people here were expecting a rain event, that soon changed.


The day was miserable anyway, cloudy and rainly the entire day long. But as the day turned into night, severe weather watches and warnings popped up all around the area. First came the flash flood warnings. Then came thunderstorm warnings which turned into tornado watches. Then after 7 o'clock, the first tornado warning was issued for Reidsville. I hate tornado watches and warnings anyway, but they bother me more when they come after dark. Thank goodness for my severe weather alert radio.

In the picture above, you see how the creek normally looks behind my house. This picture is a good representation of how it looks year round. This is the same creek that is the primary source of water for my honey bees. The stand that holds the hive is about 15-feet from the bank of the creek so it is very easy for my colony to access water all year. I made this picture just a few months ago.

Here is the creek at 7:30 on Sunday night, March 28th. This was around the time the first tornado warning was issued for my county because a tornado was sighted on National Weather Service radar a few miles out of town. I went out and put a heavy paving stone on top of my bee hive to keep it from blowing and I snapped this picture of the creek. As you can see, the rain was falling so hard, you can see the raindrops in front of the lens as I snapped the picture. Pay attention to how close the water is to the fresh water pipe that crosses the creek. This would soon change.

Here is the creek at 8:20 on Sunday night, 50-minutes later. As you can see, the pipe is completely gone now, covered up by flood water. I snapped this picture quickly because rain was pouring down and it was lightning pretty bad. Not long after this, a second storm system made its way over my area and the National Weather Service issued a second tornado warning. But we were lucky that the warning diminished quickly. But the rain didn't diminish because at one time it was raining so hard...I had to turn the television up.

Here in my city and county, we were rather fortunate that we didn't suffer serious injuries and damages. But to the south and southwest of us, people reported minor injuries and losses of homes and cars because of an unconfirmed tornado (unconfirmed as of yet by the National Weather Service). 

We've already had an awful winter with more snow that we've had in many years, and now the first storm of the spring was a doozy too. I'm just hoping that the weather for the rest of the spring and summer won't be foretold by the weather here in the last 24-hours. If so, its going to be a rough season for the bees (and their keepers too).