THUNDER AND LIGHTNING, OH MY!

 

Unseasonable warmth brought full bloom

We are blessed to have our grandson, 3-year-old Silas, at a time when day-brighteners mean so much. We enjoy hearing of his experiences as he learns about the world.

The other day, someone told me that a fluke storm was predicted for the west coast between Seattle and Portland. She said her brother was actually readying his home for excessive wind and rain, including nailing plywood over the windows. So, I reached out to daughter Hallie to see if they were preparing for a big storm, but she only knew of a thunderstorm alert. This morning, she sent me the following account of watching the lightning with young Silas:

“We only had a little thunder and lightning yesterday evening. The thunder was low and long and the lightning was a few flashes in the sky but not bolts. Silas was interested, so I held him while we looked out the back door window. We didn’t see anything, so we went to read on the bed. Then the thunder started acting up, so we stood on the bed in the dark to look out the high window.

“Finally, a good flash happened and I gasped with excitement. Silas hit the deck like he’d been shot! As he lay curled at my knee, I asked him if it scared him, and he said yes. I apologized for gasping and told him I was just so excited. He asked if the lightning would get him, and I told him that it wouldn’t. It would stay in the sky. (We’ll learn more about lightning safety when he’s older.) I told him that it’s like a great big flashlight in the sky and it says, ‘ready or not, here I come!’ He laughed.”

We had two days (March 25 and 26) of record-setting high temps – in the low 80s – here in the Valley. As one might expect when the weather is unseasonably warm, we also had a lightning storm last night but not much thunder. Today, it’s much cooler – hovering at 60. KW