Following the most stifling heat and humidity of the season to date, a "cold" front arrived overnight, igniting thunderstorms and torrential rain. Official precipitation totals for the Greater Columbia area exceed 5 inches, the greatest we have experienced in our 27 years of residence.
Due to a failed gutter, we received minor flooding in one bedroom but more extensive evidence of the deluge was evident throughout the neighborhood. A normally placid creek had risen to leave "high water" debris across lawns and gravel bars still snake along adjacent roadways.
Since we remain in a long term drought, the rain was welcome but its intense arrival was not. Compared with Jamaica's residents, who face the wrath of a Category 4 Hurricane, our local damage was a minor inconvenience but climate change surely plays a role in both. Indeed, despite the deluge and the frontal passage, warm, humid air still envelops central Missouri and more rain is expected this afternoon and evening.
