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April 11, 2001: Lightning Perfectly Placed: I
have programmed myself to wake up before a thunderstorm strikes at night, so
that I might enjoy the thrill from beginning to end.
At 4:15 AM I wake up, feeling the energy of storm and thinking that I
hear thunder. A
look outside the window reveals nothing but overcast glowing in city lights,
and very stiff south winds. But
about ˝ later, a couple flickers of lightning call me out of bed, and I watch
as a storm births itself into existence before my eyes. First it
begins as a very occasional flicker of cloud to cloud lightning.
The first real good discharge zooms right at me from my west, shattering
into a spectacular display of fiery tentacles across the sky.
A few minutes later the first cloud to grounder leaps for earth, leaving
zigzagged images in my eyes as thunder booms across the night.
It is
an interesting storm, as once every minute or two an astounding unleashing of
lightning tumbles to earth before me, and close.
I delight like a little child as shimmering bolts of platinum place
themselves directly in my field of view, pulsing with cosmic brilliance then
fading into curly cue ribbons before disappearing into window - shaking claps of
thunder. One
bolt that lands a couple miles from me has a vivid gold glow emanating from its
base. Another
bolt that lands within ˝ block of me looks like a huge rod of white fire that
illuminates the entire night, and crashes with equally awesome thunder.
Another has a platinum then blue glow at its base. This
is truly delightful; words cannot describe.
The best of the lightning lands right before me. Not
long after this storm moves out, a squall line rolls in, with vivid flickers of
lightning returning from the NW sky, and immense winds bending trees widely,
swinging from the SW to the NW and dropping temps. Ever- thickening sheets of
rain ride the blasts of wind, and soon rain competes for dominance over the
wind. A quick run from my door to
my car feels like getting dumped on by a water bucket, and I shiver in the
chill. About
45 minutes after the squall line tapers and moves east, dawn arrives with the
electric excitement of renewed lightning flickers.
I return to the window to witness the unfolding of a most beautiful
storm. Dancing ribbons and trees of
platinum and pink cloud- to- ground lightning tumble again and again before me,
playing with thunder and plying through deep gray clouds. A
couple bolts hit near with brilliant flashes and crashes. An almost
electric-velvet green of rain- wet trees filled with Spring leaves bend with
gentle waves in the wind gusted downpour. I
behold a most rare beauty as partial clearing reveals pearly mountains of
thunderhead towering above me, with lightning below.
They sweep and swirl with most sensuous beauty.
Soon
the highest cloud tops turn electric pink with the rising sun. All
ends in time for me to drive to my job and begin the workday. One
of the students in my first period class tells me that she and her dad got up at
5AM and rode bikes in the storm. A
huge bolt of lightning from the sky directed itself right at them, then split in
two “making a huge arc above them”. It
sounds quite beautiful, and she is glowing with joy as she speaks of it.
Of note is the tornado watch for our area between 4AM and 8AM.
However, in my gut I know that there will be no tornadoes today, and
indeed that is so. |
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