fascination street

"I love weather. I'm a connoisseur of weather. Wherever my travels take me, the first thing I do is turn on the weather channel and see what's going on, what's coming. I like to know about regional weather patterns, how storms are created in different parts of the country and the world, what's happening at different altitudes, what kinds of clouds are forming or dissipating or blowing through, where the winds are coming from, where they've been. That's not a passion everybody shares, I know, but I don't believe there are any people on Earth who, properly sheltered, don't feel the peace inside a summer rain and the cleansing it brings, the renewal of the earth in its aftermath."

-Johnny Cash

I think that is one of my all-time favorite quotes. I suppose a good reason for that is that I grew up watching the weather. I grew up in tornado alley, and despite the destruction they brought, there was nothing more magical than an afternoon watching thunderheads rising in the southwest, and you knew it was comin'.

I remember watching the sky turn a bizarre dark green as the storm cells approached. The animals, especially birds, would go crazy darting in every which way seeking shelter. There were only a few times that one passed near our house. The first time I was aware of what was going on, a tornado had passed right over our home, though the funnel was not touching ground at the time. As I grew older, I watched with amazement the precision of the doppler radar, watching the tv and the movement of red and yellow squares marking the tornado over a zoomed-in, detailed grid of my neighborhood.

Occasionally out on the east coast we get some creepy storms. Weird ones that come up out of nowhere. Sometimes there's tornadoes and it makes the news like crazy. I think I'm more worried about a tree being knocked over and crashing ontop of me or my car than I am of a tornado out here.

About 6 years ago, I became friends with one of my drawing teachers who was obsessed with tornadoes. Apparently he had dreams about them, painted them, and wanted to drive to see one during tornado season. He asked me to recall everything I could: every story, describe the sky, the smell of the air, the feeling of watching the thunderheads rise in the distance.

I didn't mind. I could understand his fascination.



But then I see something like this....and every piece of me wishes I could have seen THAT. There's more pictures from the link.

I suppose it just peaks my curiosity further....what other freak storms will come forth? Global warming, climate change....whatever the appropriate name for it all is, I'm sure we're going to see more oddities as the years go on.