About 20 minutes ago, without any warning there was a massive blast of thunder. I looked out the window and a great downpour began. I turned my head to the hills, I couldn’t see them, I couldn’t see the valley below either.
With soaking head I bellowed ‘at last’. And then it stopped, after all of 10 minutes.
Somebody up there has got a sadistic sense of humour.
But Jules is lying on the floor beside me, just as he did on the bed last night. He does not seem a bit frightened but does react to thunder and lightning by becoming very close to me. I know I have said it before but I do wonder if he thinks it is me in need of comforting reassurance.
Thunder and lightning most of the day but no rain again. We have a weather station in the village which tells me that we’ve had less than 2mm of rain in August. Our cat hates storms and has been lying under a shrub all day. She does this even when it’s raining and will only come to the house (soaking wet) when the storm has passed. Strange creature!
It’s been odd today - 16 degrees to begin with, and only 18 at lunchtime, Then suddenly up to 27 with rain in the distance, at around 6:30pm this evening. About an hour later it was wet again and chilly to the point we had to shut the front door.
Rain for about ten mins last night, you wouldn’t know this morning as still dry as a bone. The Agly was running full after the winter as the snow lingered up high right into March/April but on Sunday, the river was just a puddle here and there and the bottom full of bushes growing again.
I’m glad you’re OK Shiba. I don’t know how far you are from Font Romeu but I saw that they abandone La Vuelta yesterday because of huge hailstones.
We had at least 2cm of rain, with strong winds, thunder and lightning. It’s calm and sunny this morning but there are some large puddles on the seafront.
That’s quite a way up in the mountains from here, a good hour at least. We didn’t get any hailstones, mostly over in the Corbières to the north but nothing here near the sea. Strong winds and a lot of thunder around teatime, a little rain for about ten mins and that was it, yet again. Overcast and cooler at the moment but sun forecast later and rest of week getting warm again
Anyone effected by the Aude tornado? We are in our old village between Castelnaudary and Mirepoix visiting friends and it got pretty wild but nothing like those people!
Some friends live about 10km from Pomas, which reminds me that @Adam1 must be fairly close. I hope you’re OK. Our friends had about half an hour of rain and their parasols and pool furniture were rearranged, with a generous scattering of leaves and pine needles.
The Connexion have done an early newsletter with a photo of Pomas. The poor residents, it’s going to take a while to get over this.
To me that is worse than seeing your property after the devastation of a fire because you can still see possessions and bits inside, whereas a fire like in the Gironde recently, destroys everything apart from the solid structure of the house if concrete. Felt so sorry for the people hit by this last night on the news, hope they all had sufficient insurance to start again
@toryroo I read about this in the Connexion and immediately thought of you as you had mentioned you were in the Aude visiting friends. Hope you and your friends are OK.
I don’t think Pomas is a modern village… ?? ?Albeit some buildings might not be quite as old as others…
“Pomas dates back to the 9th century, when it was known as Pomaris.
In 1212, the local lord, Bernard de Pomars, was denounced as a heretic; his lands were taken from him and given to Philippe Golhoin. In 1559, the Rabot family took over the lordship of Pomas. The lordship was sold off in 1719.
On 24 August 2026, many buildings were damaged, and many people were injured, when a tornado struck the village.”
There were 300 homes damaged out of the previously existing 500… and many people injured… ghastly
many other buildings were damaged… amongst them were the school (1956) and Mairie (1855)… both will need to be rebuilt.
We are off to buy some more downpipes to divert water from the back wall of our house. Have had deluges and now a comfortable 23 with little scudding clouds.
None of the mediaeval houses in our village were damaged by the tornado that ripped through our valley last year, even though it wreaked mayhem in the forest on the opposite bank of the Lot
Most of the wrecked properties visible in the news footage seemed to be of modern construction
Yes! Hence on flood diversion measures now in case we get more. When we first saw house the downpipes went into the ground. The day of the acte de vente some were no longer in the ground but directed into tubs - which we didn’t notice . Apparently they were illegally connected to the fosse so proprietor had removed them to pass SPANC inspection.
So down pipe from roof goes into 100l tub by kitchen door. But a measure of how dry it’s been that they have not filled up since we arrived on 19 february! And yes we have been meaning to do something for last 6 months….
Procrastination just meant we had to bail out the tubs so kitchen didn’t flood.
