One of the coolest things about living in the Midwest is experiencing summer thunderstorms. By July/August we have enough heat and energy in the air for forecasters to predict pop-up storms just about every day. I wrote about similar storms in Colorado’s San Luis valley last month, and as exciting as those events were, being present for summer storms around here is better on a different and more frequent scale.
As I write this entry late in the evening, with the cicadas starting to wind up for the night and crickets having begun their nocturnal chorus, thunder ripples across the southwest Ohio sky. It has rained off and on all day, with sunshine baking through now and then cooking the moisture off the pavement and returning it back into the storm system.
The back porch is a great place to be for these pyrotechnic and sound shows, sitting protected beneath the drum head of the canopy inside the arboreal theater of wind sounding through needle, leaf, and limb.
I sometimes wonder if some of the draw for my sitting out in the rain is the bad boy in me challenging fate and lightning to come get me. Maybe some, but I think it more akin to being at a live musical performance trying to discern the voice of each and every instrument as the orchestral dynamic develops. It is the chorus of rain’s tympani on leaves and canopy and the song of wind and six-legged critters playing together in a natural symphony unique to life on this planet that is such a special physical experience that I just want to sit outside and take it all in.
Just now, as I revise this entry in my office and prepare to post, another rumble of thunder and the crescendo of rain on leaves can be heard through closed windows. Beautiful! My California pals must be jealous.
Today’s elder idea: Listen to the sound of weather: It is Earth’s unique soundtrack.
As I post this comment, thunder rumbles are pierced by the whine of the tornado siren. There's a mash-up for you!
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