THUNDER BOOMERS ! ! !

from yesterday...

it'd been raining cats n' dogs all day, but it just changed to snow -- and the changeover was accompanied by a bolt of lightning...

we already had one round, and more on the way...

is that the batch that went through here yesterday
it was spectacular


(tornado watch in New Brunswick - hope Gezzy's ok)

Hd our first hail storm in about 20 yars. This on was severe. Stones were maybe as big ping pong balls. I heard that in LAWN-GILAND they were as big as baseballs. We lost power and are on generator juice. Storm was hewmongus for our area. Line squall winds maybe near 70 mph. Our mail route has a down tree so the road will be quiet for a while.

aye yi yi.

tornado watch for western mass...

well crappola on that

we've had a lot of big windstorms in the past few weeks - lots of big old trees coming down - I'm very nervous about my almost 100 year old maple. It's an urban maple so apparently about 25 years past its prime.

Let the little dog out last night (actually very early morning). She did her thing and came right back in. Good thing, too. We had a thunderboomer about fifteen minutes later that woke The Girl up. A little later, I heard a strange noise, and looked out the back door, where the rain was coming down in sheets.

Rain would sure be a strange sound around here. City water supply looks good, but range fires are kind of scary.

You folks have had a dry summer, season in and season out, for the last several years, no?

Well, yes, but when the average is less than 9", it doesn't take much less to be a big problem. I'm having trouble recalling any showers this year that did more than spot the windshield.

the real climate shift for you guys was like 1100 years ago so dont say you didnt have a warning. At last you get a good crop of mesquite wood

Ready for another shipment?

I haven't read this whole thread, but I got the idea that some people love thunderboomers. If the term thunderboomer means simultaneous light and thunder, I don't see how anybody could say they love it. The few times I've experienced that it scared the crap out of me. Lightning and thunder, fine, at a distance. If they are simultaneous, it means you're close to being struck.

I've always imagined that it's something similar to being under artillery barrage. My brother-in-law was in Korea and said what you learn is that the noise can't hurt you. That is of course if you're far enough away from it, away from the effects of the shrapnel.

Now, I apologize if this has been said a million times already on this thread, but there is a joke about golfers caught in a thunderstorm on the golf course.
The tendency is for golfers to run for cover under a tree in rainstorm, about the worst thing you can do. The joke is if you're caught in a thunderstorm hold up your one iron, because even God can't hit a one-iron. I guess you have to be a golfer to appreciate that one.

been raining for three goddam days. I cant get into the garden because the ground will compact into clots that will turn into pottery when it gets hot.

it's a great adrenaline rush

You might like Pecos Hank videos. He is a storm chaser and snake lover.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1leX66NWMu8

I wonder how far you would have to be away from a thunder strike to perceive an interval between the lightning and the thunder. Does anybody know?

I was really close to a strike at 500 feet. I received a lot. For example....a bright flash and a fraction of a second ... then BOOM! I needed my Pampers changed.

It was pretty close and our power lines had a surge that took out the fuse in my battery power backup.

I met a storm chaser at a Canada Reads event earlier this year. Fascinating guy.

Not my idea of a fun fulltime gig, but I can see getting trapped in the adrenaline rush - kind of like wanting one tattoo after another.