Incoming!
Life 06/18/2004 |Tonight on my way home from work, I noticed (but, unfortunately, wasn’t able to get a picture of) an absolutely stunningly beautiful sunset. Off to the west, there was an immense cloud bank hanging in the sky, a little puffy on the bottom, but with a huge wall of cloud reaching straight up into the sky catching the light from the setting sun, making the entire cloud glow rosy against the pale blue of the evening sky.
The real significance of that cloud formation didn’t dawn on me until later in the evening, though, after the sun finished setting. I was feeling a little cooped up here at the apartment, so I took a quick run through the shower and headed up the hill to Neighbours to check out their 80’s night, which I hadn’t been to in a good couple of years or so. On the way up I thought I caught some odd flashes of light, but I wasn’t entirely sure, and figured it was just headlights reflecting off of windows.
A few hours later, though, on the way home — no more doubts. While locally the weather is still quite warm and dry, with just a slight breeze to cool things off, flash after flash after flash has been lighting up the night sky as what appears to be a fairly major thunderstorm rumbles along somewhere off to the southwest of Seattle. I counted at least twelve to fifteen flashes bright enough to light up the entire sky, and a few more smaller ones higher in the banks of clouds. I only occasionally caught any thunder rolling past, though, so either the strikes are pretty far away or quite high in the clouds, or both. Still, every so often I’d be treated to that deep bass rumble.
I spent the entire walk home with a huge grin on my face, too. Neither southern Alaska nor western Washington are exactly renowned for their thunderstorms, so when the odd one comes through, I revel in it.
iTunes: “Dreaming (Libra)” by BT from the album Dreaming (2000, 9:18).
[See also: Greetings, Earthlings | All About Electricity | Just a quick word or two | Little Fluffy Clouds | Power came back at 11, just as we were… ]
3 Responses to “Incoming!”
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fpz
Gavriel
medhat abbas
Ryan Waddell
Sponge Bob
June 18th, 2004 at 9:13 am
we had a huge lightning storm here in fairbanks a few weeks ago - first few days of june, i believe. it was amazing - sheets of rain, blowing gusting howling wind, and lightning bolts touching the ground every 15-30 seconds. thunderstorms aren’t uncommon during fairbanks summers - we usually expect at least one or two. lightning storms are more uncommon, but usually it’s just flashes in the clouds. it was amazing to see a lightning touching down across the areas just outside of town.
June 18th, 2004 at 1:24 pm
Can I donate some thunderstorms? It’s that time of year in the midatlantic when you can practically set your watch to the incoming thunderstorms in the afternoon.
Perhaps a trade? You can send over a teeny-tiny earthquake and we’ll give you one of the smaller hurricanes.
June 18th, 2004 at 2:42 pm
Apparently, this was very intense out in the foothills and on the Sammamish plateau … . 3+ hours of sound and fury, with another forecast for tonight.