Heavy rain and strong thunderstorms were in the weather forecast for the Athens area today. The rain started in the late morning and continued long enough and hard enough to create a few rivers and a couple of swimming pools in my yard like this one seen in the back yard. The puddling suggests we go a lot of rain in a short amount of time. No worries here, though. The two Pieris Snowdrift plants on either side of the photo have a serious drinking problem and should be enjoying all the rain.

Runoff made its way to the short path from the back porch to the patio. The good news is that this is the only area where the water gathered anywhere near the foundation. And even then, the water continued flowing to the left in the photo above into a small valley behind my house and eventually to the path in between my house and my next door neighbor, and then to the street.

My next door neighbor's downspouts drain into the yard in between our houses. This isn't normally a problem. But the heavy rain received today overwhelmed the yard.

Hopefully, the Bottlebrush and Korean Azalea will benefit from the abnormally large amount of rain.

Runoff from my neighbor's downspouts.

Runoff from my neighbor's downspouts.

The water was probably about 4 inches deep here.

The runoff from next door made its way to my driveway and then to the street.

Runoff from my next door neighbor.

The amount of rain received was enough to overrun the driveway and flow into my front yard.

My front yard.

The same thing happened on the other side of the yard. Runoff from my downspouts made its way to my other neighbor's driveway, although much closer to the street.

This is a small valley area in between my house and my next door neighbor. Water from the downspouts in the back of the house drains into this valley and eventually makes its way to the street.

I've never seen this happen before. The runoff from the property behind mine was enough to create a river flowing through the corner my yard.

It's hard to tell from the photo above. But the area in between the fence and the large tree is actually shaped like a valley and will collect water. I have to wonder if this was done intentionally by a previous owner of my home for this very reason.

But even so, the amount of runoff was strong enough to breach the valley in this location.