Boy, was it ever!
What a storm! I felt like I was in The Wizard of Oz. I got home from work just moments before the big thunderstorm hit. I quickly took the dogs outside the moment I arrived, urging them to hurry while the lightning lit the sky and thunder crashed in the not-very-distance.
If I've ever had a worse thunderstorm I can't remember it, though memory is an odd thing. The passage of time makes storms from previous years seem less intense than the most recent one. I feel safe in saying that this was by far the worst thunderstorm I’ve had in several years, but for accuracy’s sake I probably shouldn’t say it was the worst one ever. (But I think it was)
At 5:30 p.m. it suddenly got as dark as midnight--and this is no exaggeration. I started thinking about the possibility of a tornado and turned on the weather radio. No tornado warnings were posted, which made me feel only a little better. What if the tornado was forming over my head? That wouldn’t be on the weather radio yet, would it?
Lightning was close and got closer with each flash. The storm seemed to be all around the cabin. It wasn’t the kind of storm that I can hear coming from the north or the west, that passes overhead and then continues on to the south or east. This storm was all around, and all of it was close, with multiple lightning strikes within half a mile. Then I saw a huge flash through an east window, heard the crack of wood splintering followed by the sound of thunder so loud it was like an explosion. The strike sounded as though it was at the end of my driveway. I figured that any resulting fire would be doused by the torrential rain that was falling, as I certainly wasn’t about to go outside to investigate. The lights went out but miraculously came back on almost immediately. The storm went on and on. I thought it would never end.
Eventually, finally, the storm went past. I had just under 2" of rain in about an hour. This morning was the first I could investigate the outside in daylight, but I didn’t find anything out there in pieces. None of the trees looked as though they’d be split by lightning. Nothing lay in pieces on the forest floor.
If I've ever had a worse thunderstorm I can't remember it, though memory is an odd thing. The passage of time makes storms from previous years seem less intense than the most recent one. I feel safe in saying that this was by far the worst thunderstorm I’ve had in several years, but for accuracy’s sake I probably shouldn’t say it was the worst one ever. (But I think it was)
At 5:30 p.m. it suddenly got as dark as midnight--and this is no exaggeration. I started thinking about the possibility of a tornado and turned on the weather radio. No tornado warnings were posted, which made me feel only a little better. What if the tornado was forming over my head? That wouldn’t be on the weather radio yet, would it?
Lightning was close and got closer with each flash. The storm seemed to be all around the cabin. It wasn’t the kind of storm that I can hear coming from the north or the west, that passes overhead and then continues on to the south or east. This storm was all around, and all of it was close, with multiple lightning strikes within half a mile. Then I saw a huge flash through an east window, heard the crack of wood splintering followed by the sound of thunder so loud it was like an explosion. The strike sounded as though it was at the end of my driveway. I figured that any resulting fire would be doused by the torrential rain that was falling, as I certainly wasn’t about to go outside to investigate. The lights went out but miraculously came back on almost immediately. The storm went on and on. I thought it would never end.
Eventually, finally, the storm went past. I had just under 2" of rain in about an hour. This morning was the first I could investigate the outside in daylight, but I didn’t find anything out there in pieces. None of the trees looked as though they’d be split by lightning. Nothing lay in pieces on the forest floor.
This morning I've decided it got so dark during the storm because I must have been inside the thunderstorm cloud. Since I'm up on the mountain I'm higher than elsewhere, and I think I was inside that black cloud. There's downed trees, wires and flooding all over the local area. I'm lucky I didn't have any damage. Boy, what a night!
My photo today was taken after I got off the mountain--where it was still too overcast and dark for a photo. The view is looking to the northwest, still overcast but already with hints of clearing.
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3 comments:
Oh yea, nice t-storms. Started 8ish for me and didn't end untill 11. Pretty good show of couple streaks. Just for the fun of it. I tried capture one the flashes, Got mostly blank shot with maybe 5 shot of flashes. LOL!
Cathy,
My nephew got a few great shots of lightning, using a setting that takes something like 16 photos in a second (and a tripod). I don't have a safe place to be outside and see the sky to take lightning photos from.
I love thunderstorms, but not when they're right on top of me. I'd rather admire them in the distance. They always remind me how small we humans really are on this Earth. Glad you came through unscathed.
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