Wonderful, fulgent, post, Soz.
Stopping to look up fulgent...
I still remember very clearly a thunderstorm when we lived in the A-frame in the mountains when I was a kid -- which means I was only three or four. The back wall of the house was all windows and sliding glass door, and a burst of flash lightning lit up everything outback in a ghost-white brighter-than-daylight picture that's still burned into my mind. And then the boom, and all that glass shook...
We get a lot of very serious storms here in Tornado Alley. I wouldn't say I exactly hate them, but they are a cause for anxiety, that's for sure. The first thing everyone does when the lightning & thunderboomers start is turn on their television and check to see if there's a tornado watch (conditions are ripe, don't make any outdoor plans) or tornado warning (one has been spotted, take cover).
A good friend of mine lost his only child...a 23-year old son...in a massive tornadic storm here a few years ago. Everytime he hears thunder he gets flashbacks.
Did you get any storms tonight, Eva? We got a few up here, but no tornados tonight. Had a couple twisters nearby last night, though.
I wondered if our ozzian friends had many thunderstorms. Some parts of this continent get quite a few, others, not so many.
Eva, i've seen several tornados, and used to have nightmares about them. Once, however, it was awfully ridiculous. I was working in a store in Peoria, Illinois--my grandmother had moved there to be near her sister, and i was staying with her. I looked out the front window, and there was a tornado zipping along the top of the bluff to the north. Although i knew it had to be miles away, it still looked to so odd, running along, with heavy traffic on Lake Street, appearing to run along beside it. No one was injured, i believe a farmer's pole barn was the only casualty. For years after that, they advertised NOAH radios with a video of the tornado racing along beside the traffic.
My mother, God bless her, was terrified of thunderstorms and unfortunately, she taught me to be afraid of them as well. I've come a long way but still feel anxious during a storm, especially when I'm alone.
No, Tico, no storms here today. 40% chance tomorrow, though.
I'm in Tulsa, close to downtown. Where in Kansas are you? Hadn't heard about the tornados up there last night. Was anyone injured? Any serious damage?
I live near the confluence of the Big and Little Arkansas rivers: Wichita.
There were quite a few out west of here ... 6 touched down near Fowler. Lots of property damage, but no deaths.
love 'em.
my favorite kind is when it gets soooo dark during the day that the street lights go on...
one time i was walking across the fort point channel bridge during a t-storm holding an umbrella.
there was a small bolt of lightning nearby, and i could actually feel a few volts of electricity with the hand holding the umbrella...
that was cool!
Yes, Set, I LOVE thunder storms! Growing up in Tucson, I saw some magnificent storms crashing through the desert. The sky lit up like daylight, even brighter than day at times, or so it seemed. It is the most exhilarating experience in the world.
Sometimes in the desert, we would get electrical storms--clouds would build up over the mountains--we all would get excited that we might, just might, get some rain. Usually, the cloulds would evaporate or, if it rained, the rain would evaporate before touching the ground. Other times though, lightening would increase geometrically, crashing, booming, exploding with enormous power. It was scary, but in the most exciting way--a kind of, "oh please, keep booming' as we covered our ears and closed out eyes, peeking through our fingers like at scary movies. Telephone poles would be knocked known, trees, radio towers. Of course, the risk of wild fires was horrendous, but the sheer awe and wonder of those storms is something I'll never tire of and will always be right there at the window or standing outside to feel the rain and the vibration of the thunder.
Going to find face paint and a mean looking spear.
Eva and Tico, tornados are a different thing entirely. I've never seen one, but I'd run for cover instantly if one were to come by. They are just plain dangerous, but I know there are crazies who love to follow them. Not I.
Put me down as another big fan of the boomers.
And a confirmed heathen.
We had a great one two nights ago, over an inch of rain fell in a little over an hour.
Lots of heathens, lots of face paint . . . this is shaping up to be quite a party . . .
Diane wrote: Eva and Tico, tornados are a different thing entirely. I've never seen one, but I'd run for cover instantly if one were to come by. They are just plain dangerous, but I know there are crazies who love to follow them. Not I.
National Geographic just published the first ever photographs of the inside of a tornado. Meteorologists have no idea what the inside of a tornado is like and for the past several years they have had crews (they get paid for this!) chasing tornado's, getting in front of them and trying to judge where they think it will go. They then lay down a special weighted disk with a camera in it and run like hell. The hope is that the tornado will actually run over it. This spring they got lucky and got their pictures.
(too bad we can't add sound to our posts...)
Very nice RP....I too adore thunder storms.
Region, thanks for the video link.
you're welcome -- thanx for calling it to my attention
I love the way the air smells after a thunderstorm.
We don't really get them here in the valley - or at least not the kind I'm used to. Sound travels differently here. No rumble, all BANG.
In Chicago, they were more electricity than noise. We would head to the Hancock building and watch the fireworks over the lake. Amazing.
I grew up in Texas and Oklahoma where thunderstoms are lazier things. Drumrolls. Ozone. Jesus skies. Those are the ones I miss.
