On June 4, we had a very large thunderstorm that brought heavy rain, high winds and lightning to the mid-valley. In my June 7 column, I asked readers to share stories of the event. I was not disappointed.

In the column, I remarked that the June 4 storm was the largest local storm I have seen in my 20 years living in Corvallis. ("Local storm" is a synonym for "thunderstorm.") After reviewing some weather data, hearing some stories and getting e-mail from faithful readers, my mind remains unchanged: It was a really significant, and very powerful, storm.

Several folks sent photos, including a very impressive cloud picture sent by Dr. Jim Bell of the Geography Faculty at LBCC. And there were a number of eyewitness accounts.

From "Jean": "I live In Willamette Landing on Shoreline. I had been working in the garden and had just dumped a five-gallon bucket. The storm hit. and I had never seen more rain in Oregon (I have lived in Oregon 62 years and was born in Tillamook). The thunder was coming less than a second after the lightning. After the rain stopped (it rained about 40 minutes), I went out and measured the rain in the bucket: two inches. Two inches of rain in 40 minutes! All the gutters around us were overflowing … they could not handle the amount of water."

Two inches in 40 minutes would break all existing records for rainfall intensity here.

From Jay Burreson: "I was at Fred Meyer when the storm hit about 4 p.m. As I went in, I saw that there was a very black cloud coming out of the southwest. I was just in there a short time and as I was leaving, a neighbor came in and said it looked like the end of the world out there. The whole sky was absolutely black. As I got to my car, a few drops of rain started coming down. In a few minutes, it started to rain hard. And then it just started to pour. I couldn't see out of the windshield for all of the water pouring off the roof. I lived in Fiji for a few years and we had some real gully washers when I was there, but I don't think I've ever seen it rain as hard as it did then."

But the capper was the account of an event right in my neighborhood. Laurie Childers and her family lives five houses up the street from my southwest Corvallis home. She was home at the time of the storm (I wasn't). Laurie remarked:

"It was an amazing storm, with warnings over the radio for a couple of hours prior, regarding the possibility of large hail with it, etc. I picked peas and strawberries from the garden in case they might get wrecked. The storm only lasted 20 to 30 minutes. So much rain was falling, spilling over the gutters like waterfalls, and I was taking photos out of a window on the south side when that bolt hit. It was not only incredibly bright and loud, it was percussive, and pushed me from the window! (No, I didn't think to click the shutter again.) It turned out I was about 60 feet from where it hit. Not until the next day did I get to learn WHAT got hit. A large strip of bark flew off and scattered toward the west of the tree. Four houses got parts of their TV cable and computers and clocks wrecked because of it. Luckily I had unplugged the computers in our house."

Yep. It WAS a big storm! I'm really glad I was able to experience it. Thanks to all who wrote.

George Taylor retired last year as Oregon State University's climatologist.

He operates Applied Climate Services of Corvallis.

He can be reached at taylorgh@comcast.net.