Thunderstorms -- one of my favorite things

I love thunderstorms, I think they are fun to watch. I've never lived anywhere that had frequent thunderstorms, so they have always been a treat. Ironically, we have had thunderstorms almost every night for the past week. Actually, this entire summer has given us more thunderstorms than I've experienced since moving to MA three years ago. It seems that almost every day the Weather Channel calls for thunderstorms, although they don't always happen.

Friday I enjoyed a thunderstorm from the covered balcony of a restaurant, Saturday a thunderstorm ruined the outdoor plans for my party, and Tuesday it canceled our playoff softball game against the #1 seed. It looks as though storms will also cancel volleyball practice today (we play outside), and quite possibly the re-scheduled softball game tomorrow.

The heavy rain we received last night actually flooded our department's first floor! The atrium, the conference rooms, and classrooms all had an inch or two of water in them. There is a single lab on the first floor, but they were far enough away from the water entry-point that they were spared. However, we are expected an afternoon and evening full of rain again today, so they may not be OK this time! It's rather scary to think that your research or electronics could be ruined due to rain in an area that is not prone to floods.

Hopefully I can continue to enjoy thunderstorms this summer without it causing too much damage. I don't know if it's global warming or some other phenomena that's screwing with our weather, but for the moment I mostly enjoy it. If we're lucky no more problems will come from it all.