Weird Experience

[Hound dog]

I swear easy child and I just drove through the weirdest storm ever. I mean it's already odd to have a thunderstorm in December not long before xmas.........but geez this one was strange.

Being on the highway of course you're out in the open. We could see the lightening was close when it hit. We braced ourselves for thunder that never came. And I do mean this lightening was hitting mighty close. Time and time again......it was lightening quite a lot. Once in a about oh I dunno 20 or more such strikes we'd hear a clap of thunder. Now I've seen lightening without thunder before, usually the storm is way off or it's "heat lightening", but not a bonafide storm with the type of lightening that makes you duck your head, turn your eyes away or nervous it's going to actually hit you.

Travis called us on our way home to warn us to watch out for the hail. Huh? All we saw was tons of rain and lots of lightening. easy child was joking that he was imagining things because we weren't that far out of town when he called................. And then we saw it........it hailed so much in town that it looked as if it snowed! Holy Cow! And he too had noticed the very close lightening with no following clap of thunder.

Weird.

Although I can't say I've had much experience with December thunderstorms so maybe that's not such a big deal??

But we need the rain. I'm not going to complain about that.

 

[busywend]

That is a strange storm. I hope it does not head my way!! Glad you all are safe!

 

[Hound dog]

I also noticed that immediately following the storm the air reeked of sulfur. Never had that before either. Not a clue why it would though.

 

[TerryJ2]

HoundDog, I think it's something to do with-ionization of the atmosphere. Usually it's a fresh smell, after a rainfall. But some storms can have that lingering sulfur smell.

There are very few scientists who study winter thunderstorms, and I remember reading about a guy who's pretty famous for it ... maybe in Nat'l Geo? He is just fascinated by the topic (as am I, a native Minnesotan). It was a fun read; wish I could remember the guy's name.

Yes, they are rare but they've been around since the Earth was formed and had atmosphere, and they are still weird and spooky to us!

 

[Hound dog]

I did try to look it up. The sulfur smell is from the lightening........seems if there is enough lightening, it will cause that smell. Couldn't find anything about the no thunder part though. I wouldn't think much of it myself except this lighting was striking so close we should have heard thunder nearly immediately after.......and there was none.

Terry if you remember his name could you pm it to me? Sounds like an interesting read......and maybe he's encountered the no thunder with close lightening thing.