The Rains Came

After being teased with a 20 percent chance of rain for well over a month, the summer skies finally put out for Austin last night.

It was a real gully-washer, complete with thunder, lightning and some impressive wind gusts. Early reports say the rain came down too fast and ran off too soon to make a huge dent in the drought, but a little bit is better than nada. Especially when you've been through dry spells that didn't break until late August or early September.

I took my daily nightly walk of contemplation around 10. The night air was still humid, but much cooler than it's been since mid-May. Although the thunderstorms had passed, there was an excellent lightning show in the eastern sky. Arroyo Seco wasn't seco at all. What a nice respite from the oppressive, energy-sapping triple-digit heat we've been having.