Some Real Thunder

Early summer brings some really cool stormfronts through Austin as the warm wet air heads north and cooler air gets sucked down by the jetstream. Its somewhat dramatic & anticipatory as the TV weatherpeople get to describing the storms in breathless terms, watching as the radar goes from green to yellow to red to purple in short order. They warn people in the path, and as it unfolds on tv, when it gets closer I like to step outside and feel the wind & see the distant lightning in the clouds.

It makes me wonder how it must have been just a relatively short time ago when these storms built in the distance and rolled in without any warning. Before radar, before long distance communication, when all you had were the skies and your own history of the winds and the clouds to tell you what might be coming.

Friday night brought a good line of storms down from Milam county through Williamson, and over us. As the storm crossed the county line, I went outside, under the patio cover mind you, and got in the hottub. I heard the heavy raindrops start to fall and felt the cool outflow of the storm as it grabbed hold of the windchimes and chilled my face. With the skies flashing above and the rain falling harder, I felt pretty small in the face of this power that rolls over the city.
We're going to Starlite for brunch today - first time in a while Chaz got to sleep in, so we're going to enjoy today a lot.