Hey, whatever happened to thunderstorms? You remember–great, violent downpours of drenching rain, accompanied by flashed o lightning and booming thunderclaps? The horrid heat wave of the last week has left me wondering why we haven’t had one or more of those smashing storms that seemed to have almost a daily companion of nearly all the summers of my life. After all, this heat business isn’t some recent invention–we had hot days in all the summers of my youth. But the usual contract was that at some point between 4 and 9 PM, but most often in the early part of that span, we’d get a big thunderstorm that would cool things down. Instead, all we’re getting is the heat and humidity. Someone should investigate, and for god’s sake, bring them back, quick!
My Top 5 Thunderstorm Memories:
1. Herr’s Ridge, Gettysburg PA, July 1994 or 1995–a storm during a reenactment scatter Malanowskis to the four corners of Adams County. Hilarious!
2. Mets Game, Shea Stadium, circa 1979–sudden storm brings grounds crew sprinting onto the field, but the wind catches the tarp rollers and sends them into centerfield, scattering groundskeepers in perfect slapstick
3. Offices of Scanlon & Menken, 330 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, circa 1982, standing with Jim Noonan and watching a magnificent storm overhail Weehauken and roll right for us across the Hudson
4. Riding my bike up Ridgecroft Road, Baltimore, Maryland , from Belair Road, during a downpour, some time in the mid-1960s
5. Riding with the Jackson family from Deadwood, South Dakota to Sundance Wyoming after dark, August 1998, and seeing a panorama of lightning strikes across the rolling prairie