Thunderstorms

[MauEvig]

How bad are the thunderstorms you get? (If you get any thunderstorms where you live?) We had one that was pretty intense. It looked more like a light show than a thunderstorm to me. I don't think I'd ever seen this much lightning all at once! In New York it would basically be...lightning...thunder...lightning...thunder. Here it's like...flash flash flash flash with a few booms in between. I like to think of them as "nature's fireworks" but here in Virginia it feels more like the grand finale at the 4th of July!

I love Summer but I guess you have to take the good with the bad. I didn't used to mind thunderstorms back in my Highschool days, but ever since I saw a flash of lightning and thunder come all at once making it appear like it was striking in front of my window back when I lived with my Grandma, I about launched out of my bed faster than a jack rabbit running from a rattle snake!

Although a friend of mine and I did see heat lightning during the summerfest once, which corresponded with the fireworks at night. It was pretty cool to see. I don't mind "heat lightning" which is technically just distant lightning.

I guess the rule is the further south you live the worse the thunderstorms are. My cousin who grew up in Georgia and lives in Florida kind of picked on me about it.

[Murfreesboro]

Well, thunderstorms vary a lot depending on how close you are to them. That flash-flash-flash-boom stuff, or the times when the thunder and the lightening come together, happen when you are right at the center of the storm. That can be very scary. When the storm is farther away, it is more like you describe the storms you knew in NY.

We have had a very dry spring so far, so dry that the farmers around here are getting worried. However, I am grateful that, so far, we have not had the tornadoes here in middle TN that they have been having a little farther west.

[MauEvig]

That may be true but they don't seem to be very severe in New York in comparison. Maybe that's why my Grandma likes looking at the map on the Doppler radar. I just look at weather.com or look it up online, but I'm more internet savvy. Perhaps that's the rule in the south that they're more like the New York storms if they are further away. The New York storms were pretty mild in comparison. I'm sorry I ever complained about them! It scared me so much I was ready to take my boyfriend and all three of our cats, and high tail it back North!

Nothing compares to the derecho of 2012 though. The local residents still talk about that horrifying storm to this day which happened in late June of that year. My boyfriend went without power for a whole month. I was still in New York at the time.

I'm glad you haven't had that many tornados. I don't think tornados are so much of a problem here, but that didn't stop that wind storm from coming through here. If we did have one at least I know we have a basement in our house we can hide in. Our spring has been quite wet so far, but we've had some pretty hot humid days as well. I'm enjoying the heat though. The storms and rain not so much. I suppose I could deal with the rain better if it didn't come with thunder and lightning as part of the package deal.

I can see why that would be something to worry about. A drought can have some pretty devastating consequences for food production. Here's hoping you all get the rain you need. Hopefully not the kind that comes with a thunderstorm though!

[Murfreesboro]

Tornadoes like extensive areas of flat land, so they don't happen very often in mountains. You are fairly safe from them in your part of VA, though I do remember one in that area during the seven years we lived up there.

[witchy]

We get them pretty bad here, lots of rain, wind and thunder boomers, we had two tornado's touch down last year on my daughter graduation from high school, scary stuff!!

[Spookymufu]

we had flooding here in SE Texas on Wed, it was so bad I couldnt get to work, I got with in about two blocks of the store and everything was at a stand still and traffic lights were all blinking red. It looked like the apocalypse had hit, cars every where with emergency blinkers on. Our store truck was stuck axle high in water and didnt make it to the store until the next day.

Some areas were so bad cars were up to their roofs in water.....

[Murfreesboro]

We've been hearing about the bad weather you all are getting in the mid-section of the country. Stay safe, friends!

[Kolchak]

we had flooding here in SE Texas on Wed, it was so bad I couldnt get to work, I got with in about two blocks of the store and everything was at a stand still and traffic lights were all blinking red. It looked like the apocalypse had hit, cars every where with emergency blinkers on. Our store truck was stuck axle high in water and didnt make it to the store until the next day.

Some areas were so bad cars were up to their roofs in water.....

Your neck of the woods has been stuck in a drought for awhile, and now you're getting drowned. Ain't that how it always
Is? Got family in Dallas and Houston, and they're happy to get the monsoon!
'

[Spookymufu]

its funny how they say we're in a drought, but it rains here where I live all the freekin time.......

[NeverMore]

It's the lack of snow that has us. It never did rain much here, but now we don't have the snow pack melting during the drier months to replenish the water. It poured here Thursday and Friday but all that precious water went to waste, just ran off into the ocean.

[MauEvig]

Well so far so good, no really bad lightning storms since that last one. We had a thunder buster a while back but it was pretty mild in comparison. We have been getting a fair amount of rain.

The real problem now is that darn pollen! The sad part is it's the rain that keeps the pollen down. I can't win. I like nice warm sunny days, but they come with pollen which affects my allergies. Rain makes me feel drowsy and I can't stand the cold.

[Murfreesboro]

You are high-maintenance, Mau!

[MauEvig]

I know. It could be worse though. There is no such thing as a "perfect place to live" anyway.

[Spookymufu]

Well so far so good, no really bad lightning storms since that last one. We had a thunder buster a while back but it was pretty mild in comparison. We have been getting a fair amount of rain.

The real problem now is that darn pollen! The sad part is it's the rain that keeps the pollen down. I can't win. I like nice warm sunny days, but they come with pollen which affects my allergies. Rain makes me feel drowsy and I can't stand the cold.

you need to move to the high desert in S. Cal (I used to live there) you get mostly warm (hot) days in summer, cool days in winter (with some cold-<deleted> nights) almost no rain and no humidity, and hardly any pollen.....but there are earthquakes on occation, and other human created issues to deal with but it sounds like where you need to live

[MauEvig]

Thanks for the suggestion spooky. I'd be a little afraid of the Earthquakes, but there is a certain beauty to the desert. I have an old classmate who moved to California and she's living it up.