Most days are hot and dry in Paraguay. There are though those days when rain arrives and all is very different.
Today is a very good demonstration of the changing weather conditions.
Yesterday is was as normal hot and sunny. Last night was then a warm night with a star filled sky. The forecast was however that something very different was coming.
The clouds did then duly arrive in the middle of the night and the stars were quickly hidden.
The first indication as always that changes were on the way was the arrival of silent lightning. For a couple of hours this flashed between clouds. Never once heading towards the ground and never once making a sound.
All the while though the electrical energy built up in the sky. Building up to a point where it would no longer be able to remain held within the clouds.
At about 4am when the storm front proper arrived the electrical energy became too much for the clouds alone to support. Then as the storm rolled in lighting descended to the earth sending shock waves in the form of thunder through the air.
This is always when a storm is at its most dramatic. Also when it is at its most dangerous.
The front of an electrical storm is always driven on by wind. The greater the energy and the larger the storm the higher the wind.
The wind begins before the rain arrives. Those fifteen to thirty minutes as the wind builds and the rain begins are when the most damage is done.
If the electricity is going to go off it will be now. If a tree is going to fall it will be now.
The winds rapidly build to storm force. Trees bend and loose tin sheeting on houses rattles. Before I lowered the roof on the external kitchen, removing anything the wind could get under, I twice lost the kitchen roof during this stage of a storm.
The rain itself fall briefly as small droplets. Then rapidly grows into large fast moving drops each leaving a small puddle on the ground. By now anyone who was outside will be seeking shelter to avoid getting soaked in an instant.
Along with the wind and the rain the thunder becomes every greater as the storm gets nearer.
Very soon the lightning is almost constantly flashing somewhere in the sky and rumbles of thunder blend into one never ending noise. The loudest and nearest of which shake roofs and buildings.
The state of nature at its wildest typically lasts as it did today for two to three hours. Then as the center of the storm moves away the gaps between flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder become greater and more distinct. The wind also calms as the storm moves onwards.
Behind these few hours of wild weather are always many more of thick cloud and heavy rain. The rain though as it is no longer driven on by the wind falls with less violence.
The thick cloud and heavy rain made this morning a dark one. Light needed until late morning.
Then though about midday, about ten hours after the rain began, the sky started to brighten and the rain slowly stopped.
One finally phenomenon must then pass by before the storm is over. Once more the winds pick up. Far less though than when the storm began. This time marking the back edge of the storm system.
Light rain will continue now on and off for several hours, but by tomorrow the clouds will have passed and the sun will return.
All this water falling over such a short period of time always has rapid and serious effects on the normally dry ground of Paraguay.
The water must all go somewhere. Nowhere in the country are there storm drains capable of dealing with it. Accordingly streets soon turn to rivers and low laying areas become flooded once more.
I am a little fortunate in that I live on a hillside. So the waters simply wash past my house and down into the street.
That street though like most country roads across Paraguay is simply a dirt track. A good soaking of water and the dirt quickly turns to mud. Along the track whole sections turn into deep soft mud that is impassable to all but the most determined off road vehicle.
For a few hours until the worst of the water has had chance to soak away I will be cut off from the rest of the world. Happening every time there is heavy rain one soon learns to wait a while before trying to go anywhere and not to let the fridge run empty.
And of course in a couple of days time once the sun has warmed the land it will seem like it had never rained.
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