The Snowflake Chronicles

Thunder

I didn’t get to bed until after midnight on June 7. It wasn’t that I was sleepy or anything like that, I went to bed because of the thunder and lightning. When I was growing up my Grandma Newland wouldn’t let us use the T.V., the telephone or any electronic equipment when it was thundering and lightning. In fact, the only thing she allowed to be on in her house was a small battery powered radio and that was only for getting storm and tornado warnings.

Any way as I was saying, I went to bed because of the thunder and lightning. It was the thunder I hear rumbling, so I turned the computer off and went to bed. My bed room window is in the back of the house and my bed is close enough so that I can look out the window and watch the sky. As I lay watching the lightning flashed and the thunder rumbled.

Las Vegas doesn’t get the really good thunderstorms until August, that’s when the lightning flashes and the thunder roars. The June thunderstorms here are shadows of the August storms, but last night there were enough lightning flashes to keep me from going to sleep right away. Enough lightning to make me homesick for Oklahoma and the spectacular storms there. It’s during the thunderstorms that I really miss Oklahoma, if you’ve never witnessed a thunderstorm on the great plains you’ve never seen a thunderstorm.

In Oklahoma thunderstorms come along with crisp, bright flashes of lightning that strike the ground or the power lines and leave the scent of ozone in the air. In Oklahoma thunderstorms come along with tornados. In fact, there are tour companies in Oklahoma that specialize in tornado chasing tours. I wouldn’t pay to chase a tornado, they turn too quickly for that to be safe and I’ve never found a motor vehicle of any type that could out run a tornado. Still I miss the Oklahoma Thunderstorms, I miss the lightning and I miss the rumble of thunder in Oklahoma.