Had a wake-up call by Mother Nature today...

I was actually just returning to bed after a different kind of nature call when I happened to look outside the window... 
 
*FLASH*  ***BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!***
 
Right in front of me!  The flash and the boom happened simultaneously and boy was it loud!  It put all the fireworks from the 4th to shame.  The storm continued with strikes about every 5-10 seconds for the next 15 minutes, all within a mile of me (i.e., the booms were five seconds or less after the flash).  I realized I wasn't going to get any sleep for a bit so I thought I'd sit and watch the show!
 
(Then up the post count a bit and THEN go back to sleep for a bit!  LOL!)

Talk about natures' alarm clock!  Damn, I'll be having to catch up to you before too long.  

Strawberry Alarm Clock=Mother Nature's Wake Up Call

I wonder if Jonbouy will crack up over that one?

Old55


Maybe Bapu was flashing you. 

That's flash moobs, not flash boom. ;)

I was on a porch once and lightning hit a tree in the front yard about 20 ft away. Close lightning does not "boom" it "Bangs". Sounds like a giant firecracker.

I went inside...

J

I was driving  home from a gig one night in a pretty heavy storm, when lightning struck so close by that I could feel the heat from it. Tthe sound was instantaneous and like a bomb going off...the flash was bright white and blinding. 

That is the closest I have ever been to a lightning strike....and as close as I really ever want to be. 

Story 1 (I won't promise these will be exciting, but they WILL get me closer to double platypii, so...)

Back in the late 80's my friend bought a VW bug for $200 because a surfer said the engine had seized even though the engine and transmission were new (my friend guessed correctly that it was a simple fix - cost him about $35 and he had a great running car).  However, the surfer had "modified" the bug - which was already a very bright yellow - by cutting off the top with a hammer and screwdriver.  As bad as that sounds (and it was bad), there was something about riding in that car that everyone wanted to wave at you, including people in Bentley's on Rodeo Drive in Hollywood.

Anyway, one night we were in said bug driving in Hollywood and going to attend one of the Comedy Clubs back when Jay Leno was just the MC there.  We were inside when we began to hear some rumbles and wondered what they were.  Suddenly it hit us that it was thunder and we only had a very open convertible to drive in!  So we hauled ass out of there and barely outran the storm getting back to my friend's apartment.  It was a summer night with very bizarre lightning going off everywhere.  Lots of pane lightning that I'd never seen before, but lots of nasty strikes that were causing fires and other problems (fire engine sirens were wailing all around us).  I'm standing at the covered entrance to the apartment complex watching the display (it hadn't started raining yet) when a bolt hit the transformer on a pole about 15 feet away from me.  The only thing between me and the pole was a one-lane alley down the back of the complex.  Everything went completely white then the transformer exploded into green and the noise was indescribable.  I literally was deafened AND blinded for a few minutes (the power going off probabaly helped there - heh).  My friend's brother came running out to find out what happened and helped me into the apartment.  Apparently the electricity caused my hair to stand straight up which he found very hillarious.  I can still see a picture in my head of that transformer going - wildest thing I think I've ever seen.  I'm probably pretty lucky that I didn't get electrocuted, but I was too enthralled with the light show - amazing stuff!  I've never come close to seeing a display like that since.

No pix?  

craigb


I was actually just returning to bed after a different kind of nature call when I happened to look outside the window... 
 
*FLASH*  ***BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!***
 
Right in front of me!  The flash and the boom happened simultaneously and boy was it loud!  It put all the fireworks from the 4th to shame.  The storm continued with strikes about every 5-10 seconds for the next 15 minutes, all within a mile of me (i.e., the booms were five seconds or less after the flash).  I realized I wasn't going to get any sleep for a bit so I thought I'd sit and watch the show!
 
(Then up the post count a bit and THEN go back to sleep for a bit!  LOL!)

We had one just like that yesterday.  Just the one.

It was put out by a huge Cu-Nim that had gathered overhead and started to rotate clockwise while slowly heading east (the norm round these parts is a prevailing S. Westerly).  The beast did have the first inklings of a funnel trying to poke it's way downward but that seemed to diminish when the cloud seemed to drop its entire contents over the next 10 minutes, causing all the traffic to stop and all the arriving 'weekenders' scattering all over the place...lol.

Yup an isolated yet spectacular one.

Ever since I heard about people getting struck inside their houses while looking out it's made me nervous to watch (but doesn't usually stop me - I'm fascinated by the displays!).