The Return of the Storms?

After trying to ignore weather forecasts for a while (they all seem to be the same lately, a disheartening procession of record-breaking highs), I was confronted by this billowing bank of clouds while I was in my backyard.

(Please excuse the weird fish-eye effect caused by my point-and-shoot and cheap panorama software. Although it does create a kind of interesting, Lobachevskian triangle effect at the corners.)

Could these be the genuine gloomy cumulonimbus bringers of the summer thunderstorm? I think I even hear distant rumbling, and the wind is starting to bend the trees. St. Louis has been due for a good drubbing by a storm for a while now. NOAA predicts  chances of sudden downpours for tonight and tomorrow. Let's hope that their reading of their digital tea-leaves is accurate.


Later this week, I'll be shipping off to Boston, and from thence after a few days seeing family to Cape Cod. There, I hope to explore salt marshes, a crucially important and also beautiful environment, and enjoy 70 degree high temperatures. Apologies to all those I'll be leaving in the sauna that our fair city has become.