Ginger and I were sitting out on the patio. It's not really a patio it's more of a ramada. A full wall on one side and low walls around the other three sides and a roof. Pretty much a nice all weather space for me and the cats to hang out in. It keeps the rain, sun, and snow off us.

Just before midnight Ginger went out on a recon mission and a few minutes later I started to hear the soft pats of of a few rain drops on the roof. I called 'Ginger come back you're getting to old to be out in the rain.'

There was a blinding flash and a crack of thunder that shook the ground and Ginger came flying over the wall in a way I haven't seen him do in years.

I said 'best stay here dude.' and then there was a whoomph like when you drop something large heavy and flat but on a scale I have never heard before. I said 'what the' and the everything was blowing around and we got hit with a wall of water and for a few seconds I was drowning. Everything was just water and then it was over. Everything was covered in water including us.

I can hear lots of fire trucks off toward downtown but I can't find any news as all the radio stations now are just network stuff from 6PM to 6AM.

I am sitting here with the big orange boy and he keeps meowing at me and I say 'I don't know either.'

microburst?

Just found something on Twitter. >120km wind gusts with some rotation. Looks like an abortive tornado.

Wow, crazy. Are you near water? We get waterspouts around here (Florida, Gulf coast), tornados over water that can move over land. Lightning bolts over water are wicked too. Thunder louder than I've heard before. Glad you and Ginger didn't land in Oz.

We get the weather coming up from the Midwest hitting the weather coming down from the north and hitting two of the Great Lakes so fast and crazy is normal.

Ginger was fortunate that you were there for him, and you were fortunate that he was there to share it with you.

It does sound like a microburst, and I will look forward to your updates on the sleuthing for an explanation.

Not much new today. Tree bits down all over the area and some reports of house damage. Several power interruptions but nothing too long. The weather info from last night shows a lot of big gusts with rotation. So basically a tornado almost happening but not quite. Ginger seems a bit spooked tonight.

When I came in last night Caspar was climbing all over me and frantically purring and sniffing. I think it was like 'I thought you guys were dead!'

Wow, I've never heard of anything like that. Glad you're all okay.

Wow, that's craxy!! I'm a weather nut, so I would have been right out there too, experiencing it all, lol. Glad you and Ginger are okay!

The boy 2 nights later.

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Beautiful cat, arse_hat. Of all the cats I've had, I've never really had an orange one. (Well, there was that one feral cat.....)