Weather in The Black Hills

Having spent much time in The Black Hills during the summer since the early 1980s, I should be used to the idea that it rains almost every day in the summer. It often isn't much rain, but there is almost always a shower. Today, it was a beautiful blue sky morning, not a cloud to be seen. It was nice and warm sitting in the sun. We grilled steak outside for lunch (cleaning out the freezer before we leave). About two o'clock, I looked to the north and west and this is what I saw...

the clouds were moving in. Within a couple of hours the sky had become...



overcast and the temperature dropped, dramatically.

Yesterday afternoon we watched a similar storm move in. We had planned to take a little drive so left before the rain hit. We watched the storm move in from the north and west. So we drove south thinking to get out of the way and maybe avoid it completely. WRONG! It rained off and on rest of the afternoon.

This is the look of my beautiful Martha Washington geranium I had brought along. It was full of blooms when I left yesterday, but this is what I found this morning. Hail had stripped all the flowers. I'm lucky there are leaves left on the plant. An RV neighbor reported quarter-size hail fell for about 30 minutes.

We also discovered the hail had put a hole in the side of the bathroom fan/vent cover, as well as crack the cover in a couple of places. Upon returning from our excursion last night we realized that damage when we stepped into the bathroom and had wet feet. Not a lot of water, but enough to alert us to the problem. Curt crawled on top and used duct tape to seal the hole and cracks. It worked 'cause the floor was not wet this morning. We will get the cover replaced on our next trip out here as there were no RV supply businesses open today, Sunday.

Some other campers also have broken bathroom fan vent covers. That appears to be the worst of the damage. It could have been so much worse. We are fortunate.

Hopefully, this afternoon/evening will not be a repeat of yesterday's "shower".