Wild and Wonderful West Texas Weather

The day started out like most days here - sunny and hot.

It was 96 degrees when I took Kane out to the athletic complex at around 3:00 PM. And this time there were no puddles to be found, not even by the dog who has a talent for finding the only mud puddle in Lubbock.

So after 20 minutes of walking around, we hightailed it to Petsmart, where we practiced our loose leash walking and the "stay" command in air conditioned comfort.

It was still hot and sunny when we finished, some 45 minutes later. However, when the discovery that we were out of dog food prompted me to return to Petsmart at around 6:30, clouds were already filling the sky.

When I left Petsmart with my purchase, there were flashes of lightning in the west and north.

An hour later, Ariana and I went to the Market Street supermarket to do some grocery shopping. By then rain was added to the weather repertoire.

It was a light rain, however, one that did not require the windshield wipers to be operating at a continuous rate. The drops were big and fat. It was slightly windy. Lightning continued to flash.

As we shopped we could hear the thunder booming overhead.

When we came out, the rain had abated somewhat.

And in the west, we noticed that the clouds had parted, to reveal a beautiful yellow sunset. (This photo does not do it justice.)

After taking the sunset pic, I turned to the opposite direction.

And lo and behold!

There was this stunning double rainbow. It was so stunning that the store workers and other shoppers also noticed it. Ariana and I were not the only ones taking pictures and videos of it on our cellphone cameras.



As we surveyed the double rainbow, we noticed the lightning flashing in the background. The storm had moved, and the lightning was now on the opposite end of the horizon.

But there was more.

The rainbow arched all the way across the sky. And what a beautiful long arc it was!

The lightning continued flashing, sometimes dramatically - more dramatically than what I had been able to capture on video.

There was one spectacular flash that I missed, but that Ariana saw. She said that it looked like an anaconda. Not only was it thick and fat, but she was also able to see blue scales in the flash (now that she was wearing her new glasses).

It's been 4 hours since Nature treated us to this amazing display. The storm had long since passed.

Perhaps tomorrow Kane will be able to find his favorite puddles replenished.