Don't Cry Over Spilled...Water?

It came down from the state meteorologist yesterday. This summer has been listed as one of the wettest summers of all time for Iowa. Wetter than 1993 even and that was the year we saw some heavy flooding. We've had two incredibly horrible nights of storms in the last two days. We were driving home through the first one. The second one I didn't even hear but the branch lying just inches from my car told me that it was a doozy.

But I didn't need the official pronouncement. Jeff and I went out hiking at Saylorville Lake, the local reservoir, and found out how wet it was on our own. The trail we took was actually pretty dry. Closed and off limits, but dry. After the hike, we drove around the lake and that's when it hit us. The lake was high, really high. We drove across the dam and finished our afternoon at the spillway.

The reservoir empties into the Des Moines River through a spillway. When I was in high school, the spillway was my favorite place to go to think. I would drive out there on a quiet afternoon and sit on the bench for hours. It was a great place to be alone. And a great place to feel small. The power of the water coming out of the spillway is humbling. Depending on the lake level, it is opened or narrowed to regulate the flow. This year...its impressive. I don't need a meteorologist to tell me that we're having a wet summer. All I need is to see that spillway. Here is a video of the spillway taken from the ground.

And then from the hill over the opening. It was so loud I couldn't hear Jeff talking to me only inches from my ear. Make sure to turn your sound down to watch these. They are just as impressive on mute.

I've also included a video of the lightning Jeff and I saw on our drive home over the weekend. Incredible. This doesn't even remotely do it justice. {Warning: I'm in the car for this. You'll want your computer on Mute to watch}