Sunday, July 16, 2017 - Some More Yard Notes and Interesting Evening Weather

  Later Notes for Sunday - As it turned out, I didn't do anything that I was planning to do as far as clearing the trails at the creek or testing out my old aquarium. There was just too much going on around the house and the day became very hot and humid. So I put these things off as projects for later.  

  I had taken a lot of photos of the back yard earlier Sunday afternoon (at the same time that I was taking photos of Feather Run), including a new "development" in the weed patch that is growing along the south side of our shed. Just this Friday, what I'm assuming is a Sunflower started to bloom there, amongst the Narrow-Leaved Milkweeds, Queen Anne's Lace, and other plants. It was really showy, so I took a couple of photos of it. The images are below: 

  As far as the weather went, Sunday turned into a hot and humid day, as the stationary front sagged south toward us. We'd started out with a low of 63F and a Dew Point of 61F, and by noon we were up to 77F with the Dew Point still tolerable at 64F. However, even with increasing low clouds through afternoon, the high temperature jumped to 86F and the Dew Point went as high as 71F! There were, as expected, scattered storm cells around Central Indiana during the afternoon, but none of them passed near the far southeast side of Marion County. 

  The weather took a very strange turn here, however, just before sunset. By 8:30 PM there was a small but potent thunderstorm cell that blew through Indianapolis, and it passed just a few miles northeast of our neighborhood, moving from northwest to southeast, generally along Interstate 74. There were almost constant thunder rumbles heard at home, and there were also a few sprinkles of rain. The view of the storm from our back porch was just incredible! I took several photos and even a video of it using my cell phone camera. Here are three photos that I took at 8:57 PM EDT, looking north, then almost overhead and to the west, and finally to the southwest: 

  Here is a final photo of the thunderstorm as it was starting to weaken and retreat further to the southwest, lit up by the setting sun, at 9:08 PM EDT. I didn't really play with the color at all! It was a golden color from the sunset that was taking place from almost the opposite direction in the sky.

  As dusk came on and the weather quieted, I should also note that I heard the first Katydids of the season in the back yard. Their sharp rasps joined what has been a rising night insect chorus every night this month; up from the softer cricket sounds that I started to hear in June.
 
  By midnight we were down to 76F and the Dew Point was still at 71F. We had only a Trace of Rain from all of the passing storms, and more were still blowing up around Indianapolis even at that late hour.