Today I all of a sudden heard very loud sounds of rain falling on the roof. It was the loudest I have heard the rain in the many years I have lived here.

I looked out the front door and rain was coming down hard and the wind was also driving it sideways at times.

It was raining so hard that the street started to flood as the water was not able to flow away through the sewers fast enough.

I had gone back inside when the sound changed and I heard hail hitting the windows of the house. Luckily it was not too big, but you can see here some of the pea sized hail.

Water was starting to collect between my house and the next door neighbor as it was not able to drain to the street fast enough.

On the other side of the house my walkway flooded and it took quite some time to drain.

It is not often we have thunderstorms here in California, but there have been a lot of them this year.

In my town we also do not get as much rain as they say that we are in a rain shadow. We live just east of a line of hills that will usually moderate the rain storms. However, in this case the thunderstorm developed in the area between the hills and the town.

There is a lot of major flooding here in California. I am glad that I am not in a low lying area. It was a bit flooded for a short time, but now all the standing water is gone.

Steven