August 15, 2008
Last night
The view from our kitchen into the backyard last night, sometime after 2 a.m.
It had been oddly muggy yesterday; Ventura is halfway between Los Angeles to the south and Santa Barbara to the north, on the California coast. The weather is so moderate that many homes are built without air conditioning, ceiling fans enough to deal with the few days a year when the Santa Anas overwhelm the cooling ocean breezes.
We had run through the rehearsal for my sister-in-law's wedding at a country club in Camarillo, and the humidity reminded me of New Jersey (hot and sticky, with a chance of late-afternoon goombahs). Strange-looking clouds occasionally drifted in front of the sun, providing temporary relief from its blazing heat.
After the paces had been run through and everyone knew where we were supposed to stand, the wedding party adjourned to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. On the drive home, a glorious sunset filled the skies above Ventura, gigantic thunderheads catching the fading sun's rays and spinning them into pink and orange cotton candy.
The air was still hot and heavy, filled with latent, pent-up energy, and I wondered if we were going to experience an old fashioned, east coast-style summer thunderstorm.
The answer came a few hours later.
The view out the back door, just moments after the previous photo (above) was taken.
Bogie heard -- or felt -- it first, getting up and walking over to the bed, anxious, trying to get my attention.
I opened my eyes, just in time to see the world light up with a blazing, white-hot flash. Silence followed for a few moments, then BOOM!, as the storm began.
The show continues, lightning arcing across the sky, punctuated with brief downpours.
As I lay in bed, listening to the CRACK! and ROAR! of the celestial cannonades, what came to mind was Washington Irving's colonial-era description of New York's Hudson Valley storms in Rip Van Winkle, when he likens them to a sort of titanic game of nine-pins, the crash of the balls and pins echoing off the hills and clouds.
The lightning reached a climax, flashes illuminating the sky in what seemed like a non-stop series of flashes and booms, then tapered off, the night reclaiming the sky.
I moved to the West Coast 16 years ago this month; last night's thunderstorm was the biggest I've seen since waving good-bye to exit 7A off the New Jersey Turnpike. Bogie may not agree, but I wouldn't mind a repeat performance in the near future.
Posted by Mike Lief at August 15, 2008 07:32 AM
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Comments
That is so cool! I wish I had been able to experience that out here this morning.
Posted by: April Lief at August 15, 2008 12:36 PM