To welcome me back from my short vacation up to the beautiful NW, I was greeted by heat, humidity, tornado warnings, a power outage, and of course thunderstorms. I really enjoy southern thunderstorms. For those of you asking (I think it was one of my cousins) the two things that I like about the south are the birds (they all fly here in the winter so we have lots of them) and the thunderstorms.
Last night we had tornado warnings that started and are supposed to last through tomorrow afternoon or evening. We had a 5 min power outage (which I thought was going to be much longer) last night and then today the skies opened up and dumped rain all over. It was amazing. Fork lightning lighting up the very dark sky. It was pretty great.
The only thing not so great about lots of rain is that it creates what the news calls "ponding" on the roads of Houston. Ponding apparently means that the roads turn into ponds. Unfortunately for me, I drive a small Mazada and not some redneck truck or gas hogging SUV like every other inhabitant of this city so I am left driving through ponds, wondering if I am going to be the next person shown on the 5 o'clock news whose car was washed away and you think to yourself, "What in the world were they doing driving through all of that water. What an idiot."
The water was so deep that I pulled out my daughter's camera and started taking videos driving through it, although I'm not sure it does it justice. There were only two times when I really thought my car was not going to make it out, but I did.
Probably the coolest thing that I experienced, besides the earth shaking thunder and blinding lightning was when I was going to pick up my daughter from school and I was waiting at a stop light. Right next to me forked lightening struck the electrical/telephone pole and blew up the transformer in a bright, loud explosion. Then the whole pole caught on fire and all of the stop lights went out and we were left sitting in a pond of water with electricity fire burning all around us. Well, not all around us, but it sounds more dramatic that way. I guess to the side of us. Probably the most dangerous part of that all was getting through a four-way stop safely with all of the horrible drivers here.
Ahh...I'm going to miss these storms. There's nothing like it. But, unfortunately, it's not enough to keep me in the dirty south. There is something greater out there for sure.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Huntsville had a Tornado
Posted by honestgrl at 10:48 PM
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3 comments:
Storms are cool. We had quite a few Tornadoes in Missouri over the years (like how I'm making it sound like I'm 75?), and it really is bizarre. It'll be all stormy out one second, and then super bright (but the sky is greenish- no joke.. this is tmi I think. Oh well), and then a tornado rips through and you're huddled in a basement hoping that you don't get sucked up into it. Good times. :)
How embarrassing to get stuck though. I love the firefighter's "they wanted to see what it could do".. hehehe. Awkward.
Just to plat devil's advocate, I don't think that you can call them "gas hogging" SUV's until they actually take gas that someone else's car needed. Until we actually have a gas shortage I don't think that anyone is really "hogging" any gas. They're just shelling out more money to fill up their enormous tank than you or I would in our little wagons.
What does "plat" mean?... ;-)
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