February Thunderstorm

It's not every day or every year or even ever before that I've come home from work in February to a thunderstorm. But that's what greeted me last evening. Moments after I took this photo of the weird light just ahead of the storm, the lightning was close enough that I scurried inside.

The weather during the day brought record-breaking warm temperatures, breaking the old record of 60 degrees by a degree or so. Given that extreme during the day, it's not surprising or unusual that the storm that followed would be atypical as well. As far as I know, my area did not get the tornados that accompanied this storm when it passed to the south. Certainly, I didn't have anything like that at the cabin.

Later in the evening another storm crashed through, this one with high winds that reached 70 mph but even that only lasted for a minute or so.

This morning the sky is golden and clearing, the temperature already on its way back down to a more seasonal number. Snow is even forecast for the weekend. The weather has been so bizarre, especially during the last year or so, that its weirdness is almost starting to feel like the norm. And that's a much scarier thing than a thunderstorm in February.