{"id":9419,"date":"2025-08-16T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=9419"},"modified":"2025-08-14T16:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T16:08:11","slug":"stearns-county-fair-2025-lightning-hail-and-then-blue-skies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/stearns-county-fair-2025-lightning-hail-and-then-blue-skies\/","title":{"rendered":"Stearns County Fair 2025: Lightning, Hail, and Then Blue Skies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Brian
Stearns County Fair, Saturday afternoon. (August 9, 2025)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
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\"Brian<\/a>
Stearns County Fair, concessions between the Midway and the barns. (2012)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I took that picture of the Stearns County Fair while coming back from an errand last Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s about as close to being there as I’ve gotten in the last several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But since this household isn’t much more than a thousand feet from the fairground entrance, I get to see folks parked on the side street. Or, rather, I see the vehicles they’ve parked there. Sometimes my timing is right and I see them heading toward or returning from the festivities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My favorite memory this year was seeing a young family \u2014 dad and a little girl \u2014 heading back to their car. It was late Saturday afternoon. My guess is that the little girl would have been okay with spending a few more hours at the fair. Holding at least two balloons, she hopped every second step or so. The dad proceeded at a more measured pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>A Storm, Sirens, and Justifiable Caution<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Weather.gov's<\/a>
Weather.gov radar map: Sauk Centre, Minnesota, area; strong thunder storm. (August 8, 2025)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Friday evening usually brings a great many folks to the fairgrounds, but I didn’t notice as much traffic this year. That could be because the day’s forecast included storms. And, sure enough, later that evening a line of thunderstorms started heading our way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sauk Centre’s warning sirens went off about 10:25 p.m. \u2014 so we headed for our bad-weather positions. Which, in my case, is at the foot of the stairs leading to the second floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The storm that clipped Sauk Centre’s west side didn’t look all that perilous on radar, so we figured that sounding the sirens was ‘out of an abundance of caution’. That much lightning, and any amount of hail, could be bad news for anyone out in the open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, when the sirens stopped and the storm was obviously missing us, I checked out what the Weather Service said about the situation. Looks like our spotters noticed something that wasn’t obvious. Which is why we have spotters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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TORNADO\u2026POSSIBLE
HAIL THREAT\u2026RADAR INDICATED
MAX HAIL SIZE\u20261.00 IN
WIND THREAT\u2026RADAR INDICATED
MAX WIND GUST\u202660 MPH
(National Weather Service information, weather.gov<\/a> (August 8, 2025)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That’s all I’ve got for this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve talked about vaguely-related stuff before:<\/p>\n\n\n