Last night I was wakened shortly after midnight by thunder. The thunder was distant but it rolled on forever. Well, not forever, but for 20 - 30 seconds. Lightning lit up my room. Then I would wait for the thunder. Would the thunder be closer or further away? This storm was gentle. It moved slowly toward me. so there was lots of lightning and thunder. A little breeze picked up and helped to make my room cooler. After 20 - 25 minutes rain began falling. Not hard driving rain, but steady rain. Now the disappointing thing is that I went to sleep before the show ended. The Micro Manager never woke up until morning.
There's something about the power and energy contained in a lightning event that fascinates me. I know it's static electricity. I'm amazed that so much electrical energy can be formed by wind and cloud. When you think that the lightning travels for miles, that's a lot of energy. When it' rapid fire lightning that's a lot of energy forming in a very short time.
I was terrified by one lightning storm. I was on a mountain peak. We were watching a small thunder cell move through the valley below. It's cool to look down on a thunderstorm and see the lightning in the cell. All of a sudden there was static electricity all around us. We could hear the crackle. We left the mountain top at mach 1. The thunder cell was 1000 ft below us. There must have been enough energy that it spread far and wide from the cell.
Hiking in the mountains, it was common to see trees that were damaged by lightning. The tree sticks up and the lightning follows the tree into the ground.
In the old days in the country, it was quite common to see a telephone pole that had been damaged by lightning.
Now there are quite a few songs about thunder. I like Eddie Rabbit's Rainy Night.
How about you? do you like thunderstorms? Have you got music about thunder and lightning?
There's also a CD called Natural Blues that has some good thunder in it.
This panorama taken from the internet shows lightning ove Bucharest.
Being outside in a thunderstorm with lightning flashing may be dangerous but it is also stimulating. In such moments you really feel alive. There can be no yawning or grumbling that "life is boring" when you are witnessing a thunderstorm firsthand.
ReplyDeleteStimulating with millions of volts???
DeleteInopen the shades and like to watch the show.In a tent the whole world lights up and can be nice.I enjoy the smells that go with it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever been in a tent for thunderstorm.
DeleteI love thunder storms! Sadly, my 92-year-old client is afraid of them. Every Tuesday, when I sit with her, it seem to threaten rain and thunder. So far, none. BUt she is paranoid. I feel so badly for her. She's lived in her farm home for 72 years and nothing has happened!
ReplyDeleteBut the people who are afraid of thunder are completely convinced of it's danger.
Deletelong, low rumbles from the distance i enjoy followed by a soft, soaking rain. i don't like lightning or volatile storms at all. have always had a dog or two that is terrified and that never helps either.
ReplyDeleteYes, that long low rolling thunder is awesome.
DeleteI do enjoy hearing thunder overhead, but we don't hear too much of it here in Portland.
ReplyDeleteFor you folks thunder would be rare.
DeleteI do find thunderstorms exciting and love the coolness that usually follows in the hot summer afternoon. I also think seeing the storm approach and hearing in the dark in bed are two very different experiences.
ReplyDeleteGood point on the comparison of visual and non visual storms.
DeleteTampa, my hometown, is sometimes called the lightning capital of the world. (Along with many other places, probably.) So I grew up with a lot of it! I always like a good storm, too. I miss them here in England, where thunder and lighting is a rarity.
ReplyDeleteThunderstorms are just plain exciting.
DeleteWhen I saw the words thunder and lightening on your post I had to check it out. Anyone who reads my blog knows how afraid I am of thunderstorms. However, if my husband is home, I love the sound of thunder in the distance and seeing the lightening and hearing the rain. I have a great fear of being alone in a storm. I love the way you described the storm in your first paragraph. I've done the same thing at night, see the lightening and then wait for the thunder.
ReplyDeleteI think your point of being alone in a thunderstorm makes perfect sense.
DeleteI like thunder and lightning when I'm safe inside. I remember once having a raging lightning storm around my tent in the middle of the night. I kneeled on my sleeping mat and prayed until it stopped. :-)
ReplyDeleteWell, if your tent support was plastic it was okay, but if the supports were metal you needed to pray.
DeleteI love a thunder storm. We had a doozy Saturday morning that precedes the kind of rain that comes down sideways, so thick you have to pull the car over and sit it out. I also love the rumbly kind in the night but not so much the kind that almost knocks you out of bed.
ReplyDeleteYes, the banger that goes off right over head is a bit of a shocker.
DeleteI do enjoy a good thunderstorm but don't get to experience one very often where we live in the Pacific Northwest. As a child in Texas I used to stand on the porch by my father while he explained an approaching thunderstorm. I have no fear of storms.
ReplyDeleteNow to have a Dad explain a thunderstorm is great education.
DeleteI love a good thunderstorm. I've never been afraid of them. They are quite fascinating.
ReplyDeleteThunderstorms are exciting and freshen things up.
DeleteI feel the same, I like thunderstorms, but only when I am inside somewhere.
ReplyDeleteI do not like thunder storm or lightening especially since a waitress I knew very well her son got killed on the gulf course . They had know warning as it never was predicted that day such a happening on the news. he heard the thunder bang and ran to shelter but he was struck and he died instantly. His Mom and family owned a Restaurant and we used to go once a week with our family. So I became friends with her hubby and I being a steady customer.He was married and left a wife and two small children.It was his day off. He was the cook for the Restaurant with his brother and Dad.
ReplyDeleteHi Red, I do love thunderstorms. Don't get enough of them out here in the Pacific Northwest.
ReplyDeleteI've always liked watching thunderstorms. I remember once walking through a park when a storm came up too quickly. I decided to stick closer to the trees, strangely enough, than the path. As it turned out, that was the right decision. There was a massive white flash with thunder off to my left, and it brought down a tree that slammed right across the path. if I'd been walking over on the path, I might well have been killed.
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't like it. But how you are writing about it sis cool.
ReplyDeleteI have always loved thunderstorms during the summer. I find them amazing and relaxing. I especially love sleeping during them!
ReplyDeleteThose kinds of storms are so rare anymore. People tell me how nice it is to sleep when it rains, and I'm sure they mean in a nice calm rain like you are talking about. I've gotten so paranoid about the bad storms that I can't allow myself to enjoy a simple rainstorm anymore.
ReplyDelete