As we move into Autumn over here, one thing I've noticed is we're getting more thunderstorms. Since I got here in October I've seen and heard more thunder and lightening than I have done for years back in the UK. Not sure why this is, but I guess the combination of warmer weather and being nearer to the sea has something to do with it.
There were two large storms that passed through this week, and they were certainly spectacular. The first one happened on Wednesday morning when I was at work - but I got home to find one excited flatmate and one beeping dishwasher. Apparently our flat had been struck by lightening, and the power surge had fried the dishwasher, which sat there making various distressed electronic noises. But miraculously it recovered and is now working fine. My flatmate had been only yards from it when it went bang, sitting in the kitchen eating a bowl of Wheaties. A lucky escape.
The second storm came through last night, and I got a close view on the way home from work. It wasn't raining, but the storm was building up and the sky was that strange orangey/brown colour (or that could just be my colourblindness), and it got very humid. I just came out of a newsagent when a massive lightening bolt came down just where I was looking at the sky. It was amazing, a blinding blue jagged streak forking into the ground - it must only have been half a mile away or so - and as exciting as it was, it made me walk home all the quicker.
