Thunder

It has rained most of the day. Late morning it got particularly hard and then it tapered off around noon or early afternoon.

And it was then that the thunder started.

Normally, thunder is something that rumbles for a few seconds and fades, or cracks loud and grumbles slightly. However, this afternoon, I could hear the thunder rumbling from the north, heard it come directly overhead and it last over ten seconds (I had time to actually check the clock and count) and was low, loud, and close enough to shake the floor of my apartment. It then rolled its way further south, and lasted for another about 10 seconds doing that.

And then it did it again, about half an hour after that. And again, another hour or so after that. Each of these was not nearly as long as that first, long, rolling, loud one, but each was noticeable and distinctly longer than expected.

It was very unusual, and a little frightening. Thunder like that gives rise to the belief in God's or gods anger; Zeus quarreling with his brothers and sisters, Thor giving chase to the Midgard Serpent, Quetzalquotl taking his revenge. This was not, however, the most frightening thunder I have ever experienced. That is reserved for an evening in my college days when Chris and I were at the Stater Bros on Kendall and a bolt of lightning and a crack of thunder hit the same parking lot. We could feel the electricity in the air, feel the concussive force of the energy as it knocked us back a step and set off all the car alarms in the area, and were momentarily deafened by the huge crack of thunder. It was so strong that some carts left in the lot started rolling on their own.

It has remained overcast and a little damp, but for the last two hours or so it has not been rainy or thundering in this area.