OOOoooh. Thunderstorm!

Havent had many (cept mebbe that one night in April I got soaked going home) in the New York area all year.

Turned out the lights.. to enjoy the sudden reddish-darkness of a thunderstorm at sunset.

New Jersey sunsets, specially seen from New York... its like the sky is on fire, cloud edges burning fiery gold.
I have some pictures taken from a roof in Chelsea looking over the Hudson in my pennantspages diary from October or november 1999....

I remember my first thunderstorms in America.

Not like the ones in Jamaica, where they all occur high in the mountains. I heard 'em more than I saw them.

Noo.. these midwest rollers had flashes that would streak all across the skies, and you could see them for miles. They often produced industrial-strength thunder that literally shook the ground and rattled buildings.

This shit had BASS when storm fronts battle for hundreds of miles.

Talk about quaking in your boots when God went bowling. :-)

In the South, particularly in Florida when you could set your watch by the daily 4:30 thunderstorm, thunderstorms were up close and personal.

*Ka-boom-boom-booooom* was thunder high up or hitting a coupla miles away.

*KRA-KAH-BOOOOOOM* is what you heard when lightning hit the ground a few miles away.

*kra-kaka-KAPOW* is when that shit hit a few hundred yards away, invariably setting off car alarms all around. Sounds like Gods artillery.

And when you felt weird and tingly.. dont think..DROP. It is about to hit YOU.

It sounds like God has a personal beef wit you then...

Lightning is so endemic in Florida, pop up so quickly, and hit so many people, that the state and TV stations track actual lightning strikes minute by minute.

Here, by comparison.. it doesnt happen as often. There is no set pattern. You may get a sudden front and get a light show for a New York minute.. several fronts will pass through, setting off sudden storms or it'll pour for days. No pattern.

But fun when it happens.
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