Thunderstorm Warning

I’ve always loved storms. Something about the charged atmosphere, the smell, the excitement that the TV meteorologists transmit and the sound and fury of nature makes me want to stand outside and watch rather than cower into a basement and hide.

I know that storms can be violent and deadly and since I’ve never experienced that firsthand, maybe I’m naïve. But when I hear that thunderstorms are rolling in, I get kind of excited.

My first experience with a big storm was when I was about 5. We lived in Loyall, KY (still the place I consider “home”) along the banks of the Cumberland River and across from the L&N Railroad tracks. My sister and I had been outside playing when Mom brought us in because “the storms were comin’”. I was only 5 so I may not have the best memory, but what I recall is that we had just walked in the house when all hell broke loose. I remember running to the picture window in the front of the house and a sunny sky had turned coal black. Thunder was causing the big Combustioneer furnace in the living room to rattle and some of the toys we’d left in the yard were now blowing down the street.

Mom had no sooner shut the back door and demanded that my sister and I get into the bathtub when she remembered she’d left blankets out on the backporch to dry. When she ran back to the backdoor to grab them, the door wouldn’t open. Even at 5 years old, I’d heard that tornadoes sounded like the horns on the trains that would run behind the house and as my sister and I left our station in the bathtub to watch Mom fight with the door, we heard the deep whistle. And it was getting louder.

Within about 2 minutes it was over. The bright sky came back and the day became sticky humid making me want to stay inside with my Transformers instead of going back outside. Oddly enough, some of my Mom’s blankets were still hanging on the backporch. However, the deck on the back of both our neighbor’s houses were torn completely off with big chunks of wood bobbing in the river. I remember thinking how cool it would be that our neighbor’s decks were going to go over Cumberland Falls.

That day started my love affair with storms. Since then, I’ve stood outside during a hurricane in Florida just to watch the clouds swirl and the palm trees bend over. I’ve seen a tornado blow the roof off of a K-Mart in Corbin and I’ve scared the bejesus out of my college roommate by opening our windows to listen to Moby while it hailed.

So, I’ll be religiously checking the forecasts and watches and warnings today. And while I certainly don’t want anything bad to happen to anyone, if it does, I may be the guy who is too stupid to get in out of the rain.