Atmospheric dodgeball is the name of the game this week. When the forecasts don\’t look so good, all I can do is hope for enough of a weather window to do a ride without getting soaked! 

Mondays I usually don’t go out on the road bike; and unless there’s some kind of Love to Ride challenge in progress, I don’t ride to work on Monday. This is Bike Month, so I ride to work on Mondays – but yesterday I made an exception. I\’m lucky it wasn\’t raining hard when I left for work; and lucky that the sun was out when it was time to walk back home.

Round Two

Today was Round Two of atmospheric dodgeball. This morning I lucked out for my jaunt on the road bike. The forecast last night predicted overcast skies; and cloudy it was! I didn’t realize how just overcast it was until daylight; and then I could see that the clouds looked quite ominous. I was relieved to get back home before the weather broke bad. 

Shortly before 7 am I was getting ready to ride to work; I heard something and thought: Uh-oh, was that thunder? It was. Somebody not far away was getting a T-storm. I decided to take the chance, and rode to work. There were already a few small drops falling, and I wore my poncho in case it started to pour. 

On the way to work, I was eyeing a huge, stormy-looking cloud off to the South; and saw a big bolt of lightning! That made me nervous, of course. I remember an unnerving ride to work a year or two ago, when a T-storm swept up from behind me; and I felt like it was chasing me through the park! I’m glad it didn’t happen today. 

In fact, I won the atmospheric dodgeball game: shortly after I got to work, things got much stormier. Thundery weather came in waves all day long. By 4 pm the sun was out. Tonight and tomorrow? More rain; and we’re still under flash flood watch.

T-storms, of course, are small beer compared to the atmospheric dodgeball game of dealing with hurricanes. I’m puzzled now as to when hurricane season actually begins. I’ve seen both May 15, and the traditional June 1; so which is it? I’d like to know exactly when the game begins.