As a little girl I loved thunderstorms. Listening to warnings, watching radar and watching nature’s live show upped my adrenaline. I loved the excitement of seeing the clouds develop and the rain roll in during the daylight and I admired the unexpected nature of a storm with bright lighting in the middle of the night. That could have been because I slept in the basement and I felt safe. Now I sleep quite close to the large trees that twist in the wind during a good storm.
The first thunderstorm of the season is always my favorite. I wait for it patiently through the rainy parts of May and June and I listen to the weather forecasts religiously.
It arrived Thursday morning just before 4:30 a.m. when a loud crack of thunder pulled me out of my deep sleep. My eyes struggled to open. Once my ears woke up they turned toward the open windows and admired the falling rain and its changing rhythm.
Another loud crack of thunder mixed with bright lightning. I caught my breath and felt my heart beat quicken. The wind howled, twisting the dance of the century old trees. They whipped around and shimmied as the rain intensified through their canopy.
While the first thunderstorm of the season is exciting, it’s also the one that makes me the most nervous.
I flew out of bed and my dog followed quickly behind me. He sure didn’t want to be left out – or left upstairs alone.
It rained so hard I looked outside to see if it was hail, but I saw so much rain falling that it reminding me of a mid-Winter blizzard. I flew around the house closing windows to keep the water outside and I could see the neighbor’s downspout throwing water across their yard.
The radar on my computer showed a huge blob of green and right around Fargo, the colors popped up as yellow and red, which explained the intensity of the storm. The television spouted a beep-beep-beep as a thunderstorm and high wind warning. My dog sat on my feet for comfort.
I felt the same excitement and uncertainty I did as a little girl experiencing a storm on my family’s farm in Cavalier.
Just as quickly as it started, it moved on. The rain slowed down, it trickled out of the dark sky while the birds woke up and started their morning songs. A feeling of calm spread through me and I took a deep breath.
I felt too awake to go bad to bed, so I had breakfast cereal in the form of a bar with marshmallows. I opened the windows wider and I listened to the remaining rain.
The first thunderstorm of the season – that was fun.