I can honestly say I haven't seen a truly amazing lightning storm until I moved to Texas. The closest thing I can remember is a storm I once experienced in Reno, Nevada. It was a vivid storm full of sheet lightning. I thought it was the end of the world. Luckily, it wasn't; but I still remember that storm from more than 30 years ago.
Our first year of living here, it rained all the time. And with the rain, came lightning. I have thing about lightning--it's a love/hate relationship. I love the vividness and beauty of lightning and I hate and fear lightning itself. I'm terrified of being struck. If there is a storm nearby, I have a routine I go through--tv off, lights off, computers off, no listening to IPOD, no taking showers, and going to the bathroom really fast. Ask my hubby and kids, I ususally wind up sitting on my bed and waiting out the storm.
Our house is two stories and that first year of living here when the storms hit I felt like we were in the clouds, literally in the middle of the storm. Lightning was everywhere. Close, far away, bright, soft and completely unpredictable. The storms would last for at least an hour or two. I actually was looking out the window during one storm and saw a bolt hit a transformer at the end of a line of power poles. The line sits to the left side of our house and in the distance I saw a big zig zag of a bolt hit and a green explosion light the sky. The pole next to our house swung back and forth a good three feet. I was terrified that the pole was going to fall into our yard. Thank God, it didn't. But it reinforced what I've always known--lightning is flipping powerful.
It's like a big light show here. My husband always teases me because of the steps I go through when a storm comes into the area. He just didn't think it could or would hit a house. After a recent storm where two houses were hit and caught on fire--he's not so quick to pooh pooh me.
I think I'm always going to have a love/hate relationship with lightning storms. Heck, Texas does everything big here--including storms.
That is an amazing photo Robin!
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