During the last week here in Hanhongor we have seen some amazing weather-both good and bad.  Two days ago I got up and went out to go to the toilet around six in the morning and was greeted by a double rainbow going across the horizon in front of the Gurvan Saikhan mountains. It was a gorgeous sight that I got to share with the only other things awake at that time-the goats and camels.

Today, though, we were reminded of the harsher side of Mongolian weather. We had been expecting rain, and it had rained on and off for the last day or so but nothing big. At around 3 this afternoon we were sitting in our ger reading newspapers when all of a sudden we heard what we thought was thunder-except that it didn’t stop and grew increasingly louder. Santiago is generally not spooked by thunder, but this noise caused her to jump up and bolt for the door which was open at the time. Brian and I both yelled at her to stay put. Somehow we must have sense it wasn’t a good idea for scared dogs to be outside at that moment.

At about that time the booming and thundering sounds had stopped, and Brian and I stepped outside to see if a thunderstorm was approaching. To our surprise we saw a tornado heading away from our ger on the far side of our neighbor’s yard. It appeared to be about 20ft wide winding its way up into some very ominous grey clouds. Brian said that it was time we all went inside Darhuu’s house. We hustled Santiago into her front entrance way, and I went inside while he “battened down the hatches” on the ger. A few moments later he came in and told Darhuu and I that a neighbor’s house, no more than 75 yards from our ger, had had its roof completely ripped off. We all hustled out to make sure no one was hurt in the house, and other neighbors began appearing to help. It was settled fairly quickly that no one was hurt, and just in time because then came the hail. We all made our way back to our homes and waited out the hail and then a torrent of rain.

 (Some super ominous rain clouds)

The rain subsided and the sky began to clear about 10 minutes later, and we stepped out again to survey the damage. We finally got a clear sense of what happened. The tornado ripped through the roof of the house picking up roof tiles and beams (the thundering) and then travelled down the lane next to our ger throwing the gnarled pieces at fences and buildings (the booming), and somehow got to the open area just past our neighbor’s yard only taking out a section of his fence and not damaging anything else seriously.

We could deduce this from the trail of roof tiles and puncture holes in walls and fences in a line across the neighborhood.

Things happened so fast there wasn’t anytime to be scared, but then afterward there was time to think and, wow, that was close.

Thankfully no one was injured, and almost within the hour of the tornado people from around town began to gather in front of the house and help with clean up. Amazingly only the roof was torn off, and the ceiling remained intact and no windows were broken.

As a consequence, there was no serious water damage during the heaviest down pour. This being the land of portable, temporary homes, people set up a ger across town (incidentally really close to the path of the tornado on that side of town) and started moving furniture, clothing, and other household items to it.

The tornado happened around 3pm, and by 8pm the family was set up in a temporary place to live.

That was the first tornado Brian and I have seen, and we hope it is the last. Just another exciting, if unwelcome, part of living in the Gobi.