THUNDER BOOMERS ! ! !

they sent pics today --

Wow! I don't know where that was but those are some big hail stones. We had a wicked storm with hail like that as we were traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike last Sunday. It sounded like they were going to come through the roof of the car.

(they live on long island...)

This is NOT the time to ask me about thunderstorms. Usually, I love them. Mr. P. is completely entranced by them. The different patterns that the lightning makes are glorious. I live in the lightning capital of the US, and see lots of thunderstorms.

Saying that....................tropical storm Fay may hit my area on Tuesday. In a few minutes I have to run to the supermarket, and buy some things in preparation. That pisses me off, as I wanted to take a long walk today for the first time in weeks, the morning is going to be beautiful, and it is going to rain in the afternoon.

a big feh on Fay...

It's been extremely dry around here -- last I saw it was 14 straight days without rain, and those were HOT days. Everything's turning brown and dried-up and yucky.

There was a 40% chance of rain today and I was hoping but wasn't super-optimistic.

WHOA! The skies just totally opened up. Sheets and sheets of rain, incredible amounts coming down. It's been a good 20 minutes so far, letting up a bit though (still coming down hard but not quite as thickly).

I stood outside as the storm blew in -- lovely to catch those first ominous cool breezes, and then finally the first fat drops...

Long time, no posts.

Tonight was just about the most dramatic thunderstorm i've ever experienced. Unfortunately, it scared the little dogs badly, so i was not able to spend a lot of time outside watching it. But is was a pissah even though i couldn't watch the whole show. The lightening was coming down and the booms rolling out so fast you couldn't judge the distance because you couldn't associate the noise with any particular flash. They were talking to some joker on the radio who compared it so an artillery barrage--and that was a good simile, because is was literally rolling thunder, nearly continuous.

We also had constant brief power failures, which is why i'm not posting about it until now. Most were just blips--enough to shut down the computer, but not enough to put the lights out. Some were so brief the box shut down, but the lights didn't even flicker. I bet the boys from the electric company are not having a good night. At least one tornado touched down. They interviewed the woman on the radio, and she said that she and her husband just had time to get into the basement. When the noise died down, they came up the stairs . . . and the house was gone, the barns were gone, the sheds were gone and almost all of their trees were uprooted or flatted by the flying debris from the wrecked buildings. Wow, that's not something i'd care to go through.

During the Red Sox-Blue Jays game, they kept the roof of the domed Rogers Stadium closed, as there was the possibility of a tornado. Plus there was quite a storm in Manhattan a few nights ago. Missed us here, I take it it went straight North versus the usual Eastward veer.

Very sad. We lost 500 trees in Central Park. Horrible loss.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/nyregion/20trees.html?ref=nyregion
Joe(just awful)Nation

As a thunderstorm lover, I used to do windsurf while they were raging.

Sometimes I had to put a really small sail..

We've been getting lots of thunder almost daily, but only a very few drops of moisture, in my area, which is between Tomball and Spring, TX. Very frustrating. This is not only drought, but we are having our hottest summer on record.

my dad told me there was similar arboreal devastation in riverside park...

windsurfing, Francis? Are you talking about surfing on the water during possible lightning strikes?

Yep, a lot of thunder here as well, but little rain.

Indeed, Miss Letty, I'm a lot wiser now, but still loving thunderstorms..

In addition to the tornado in Durham, to which i referred earlier, there was a tornado in Vaughan, which destroyed more than 100 homes. In Durham, i believe there was one fatality, even though it is a small, rural community, and most of the damage was to farms. Incredibly good luck in Vaughan, though--no fatalities and not even serious injuries.

There were tornado warnings for t.o., which probably accounts for keeping the dome closed.

Sounds pretty thrilling. Something about nature I love is how it seems to punctuate my humaness. And instead of being saddened by the fact it seems to empower me. I love the rumbles of thunder as it reverberates in my chest. I love the quickening of my heart at a streak of lightening. I love standing next to an ocean with waves crashing and seeing a storm in the distance...I love that I cannot fathom these things...I love the wonder - the awe.

We've had a few here that looked promising - big, black, boiling clouds. Lovely streaks of lightening - but as they got closer the air must have stabilized. Not the storm I had hoped for . Only a few rumbles - but we did have blessed rain - lots of it.

My boys feel the same way. They get excitied during a thunderstorm. We all sit in the living room on the couch in front of the window...watching together. They hope the power will go out...I (secretly) hope it will not. Harder to enjoy the beauty of nature without the air conditioner.

Sorry to hear about the tornados up there Set...not something I would love to have to deal with either.

earsplittingloudenboomers across the southwest desert is a phenomena of unmatched beauty.

I love them too! I find them fanasating and love to watch them. What beauty and power. Once I was on a harbor cruise at night and there was a thunder storm - some got sick (although it was probably in part to excess drinking) and others were scared. I loved it - seeing the lightening in the distance over the harbor - simply beautiful.

That's grim.

The official line now is that an 11-year-old boy was killed in or near Durham, and that more than 800 homes were damaged or destroyed in Vaughan. Thousands are still without power today. They are saying, too, it has been confirmed that there were at least two tornadoes, category 2 (out of five). I just heard the mayor of Vaughan on the radio, and she is saying that 600 homes have sustained substantial damage, and that 200 are either destroyed or so badly damaged that they will likely be demolished.