Storms on the Steppe

This is going to be a post about weather.  It will be more exciting than it sounds, I promise.

Look, double rainbows! 

No, not rainbow exciting.  Massive destructive storm that leaves you keyed up and slightly shell-shocked for two days kind of exciting. 

"Before" photo.

Andy and I decided to get away for the weekend to our favorite ger camp, about 3 hours outside of UB.  We've been there at least 6 times since we came to Mongolia (so many that we're losing track, anyway), so I feel that I have a claim to call it "our" ger camp.   We had a good day Saturday with a leisurely breakfast and then a mostly successful double kayak trip 10k down the river.  Then evening hit.  We saw a storm moving in across the mountains just over the river.  I love riding out storms while snug in a ger, and enjoyed watching the dramatic sky moving towards us.

"During"

Then the storm came on like a freight train and we ran for the ger.  It was so fast and intense that it's a bit of a blur.  Never mind that rain and dust were somehow pouring through our ger roof (a dwelling, it must be pointed out, that Mongolians have lived through storms in for thousands of years), but the whole thing was actually starting to lift off the ground and buckle over.  We grabbed the two center posts and hung on.  Meanwhile, the next aspect of the storm hit as hail - ranging from pea-sized to large cherries - came thudding down.  We had left the door open, and so we had hail projectiles rocketing into the room.  Lots of fun

This was just one ger over from us.

It was over as quickly as it started.  And then we saw how lucky we were.  Of maybe 30 gers at camp, all but 3 had significant damage.  (Ours was one of three).  The roof was torn off of the lodge building.  The hills were covered in hail, looking like we'd had snow in July.  The road out of the camp had washed out and developed a 4-5 foot ravine down the middle.  The brand-new restaurant building was flooded and had broken windows and destroyed furniture.  Miraculously, no one was hurt at all.  We wandered around stunned for awhile.

Roof torn off the lodge.

 

Hail on the hills.

The general devastation at camp.

I can't even say how glad I am that this one wasn't ours.

 There was nothing really to do, as night was coming on fast.  We had a dry, safe place to sleep (if very musty and dusty), and went to bed.  Our car came through pretty well, except with 4 holes punched in the window splash guards.  I think we got off easy.    The next morning, the staff had rustled up a crew of Mongolians and were cleaning, sorting, drying, and getting the camp back in order.  I'm still not sure I believe that that happened.  Hopefully riding out a hurricane/hail storm in a felt tent is a once-in-a-lifetime experience!