Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Winter

The first storm of the season blew in last night.


It was seriously
one of the most spectacular lightning storms I have ever seen.

When I was little, two or three years ago, I was told to count the seconds between the lightning flash and the thunder claps and then divide by 4. The number I came up with was approximately how many miles away the lightning had struck. Last night I tried doing the same: flash one steamboat, two steamboats, three steamboats, four steambo... flash. For over an hour there was lightning every 4 to 7 seconds, without letting up. I actually put myself to sleep trying to count through to a thunderclap before the next lightning bolt hit.

I have double glazed windows - something that is not so common here - and so I didn't particularly notice the thunder, but today everybody at work was talking about how they had been woken up by the violence of the thunder last night.

Today another minor storm blew in and I took a couple of photos of the most amazing cloud formations. This bottom photo is the most perfect cumulonimbus cloud with a really pronounced anvil. Too cool - more lightning tonight!

Ah winter, this means thick soups, thick sweaters and walking around looking like Bibendum, in all of my wet weather gear and multiple coats - I still ride my scooter when it rains...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

bibendum?!!? seen him my whole life here and NEVER knew he had a name. oh, the things u learn.

that first picture is great [no offense to the perfect cloud in the second!]. it looks so very white & wintery cold especially with the bright white light breaking through the middle. sort of arctic-like, especially with the satellite receivers on the roof/s. reminds me of an outpost picture for some reason.

Anonymous said...

Actually, when I was taking the fluffy picture the way the sun was shining it looked like the sat.rec's were actually aimed at the clouds and were burning a hole through them. I agree, the 2nd pic, though of a perfect cloud, is not so grabbing, but... the way only that specific cloud was lit up as though saying "look at me, look at me!" and all the others dark little hangers on. I thought it was rather poetic 8^) But in fact, it turns out that though impressive looking, it only produced a couple of flashes before moving further east.
However my hopes are not dashed for a weekend of enforced homeness - they are threatening rain for the whole weekend - Yay!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful sky!

You still ride in the rain? Wow!

Paz

aja said...

Hi Paz,
Yeah, I ride in the rain, but back in Canada I used to ride my bicycle in the snow, so a bit of wet doesn't bother me. I'm not the wicked witch of the west, I don't melt if I get splashed by water 8^}