Stormy Heinlein

I’m concerned. The weather forecast is calling for strong storms this afternoon. Lately, even the slightest chance of inclement weather has produced some scary meteorological events.

I used to eagerly anticipate such natural phenomenom, but more often than not the weather that arrived was not nearly as exciting as what was advertised. I’ve never lived anywhere that the sky looks more threatening than it frequently does here in Malta only to just miss us to the south or the north.

"Wow, that looks like a bad one,” I’ve said dozens of times as roiling, black clouds headed this way before veering off over the prairie to unleash their fury somewhere else.

Now I know where they’re going.

All of those passing storms are headed directly for our cabin on Fort Peck Lake.

If there’s a thunderstorm, a rain squall, or a true maelstrom on the horizon, it’s aiming for our place on the lake. Perhaps it’s because there’s no basement there, no place to hide and ride out the storm. Instead, we’re forced to huddle on the covered patio and watch.

Last weekend we got hit twice. A storm raced up from the south on Friday evening, strong winds sending water toys airborne, and sheets of rain reducing visibility to near zero. But it passed quickly and there was little damage.

Another storm blew in Saturday evening from the northwest, bringing golf-ball sized hail followed by howling winds and a torrential downpour.

When the storm finally let up we saw a dock with a pontoon boat attached adrift in the middle of the bay.

At first I thought it was our dock and boat that had gotten loose. After all, until I recently started securing them as if a hurricane was approaching, we’d been in the same situation more than a couple of times.

I think the vastness of the lake has something to do with the extreme weather we see there. A little thunderstorm this spring sunk a boat at the marina, knocked down two big cottonwoods in a neighbor’s yard, and snapped off more than 100 utility poles a few miles to the south.

The weather’s been severe enough this year that I’ve even begun having storm dreams .

Now the forecast is calling for strong storms from one end of the state to the other. I’ll watch this one in Malta where I suspect it will just miss us. But I know where it’s going. Tomorrow I’ll head back to the lake and clean up the damage.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected].