My Scots ancestors would have described the event as a “thunderplump” which I think is highly descriptive.
Here in Tawa we only got 9 mm of rain from the thunderstorm itself (the day’s total was somewhat higher), but it was sudden, the onset was swift, and max rain rate reached 72 mm/hr during the 35 minute storm.
Other effects were noted too. Radio frequency reception dropped abruptly during the brief storm (not surprising from my telecom background). Interestingly, the local lightning strikes added little to the aggregate value of RF noise. However, RF propagation in the rift valley here at Tawa had started dropping 4 hours earlier, which may be part of another effect.
It was an interesting storm. Sudden. Angry. and only lasted about 35 minutes.
Isn’t mother nature wonderful! 