Last night we were treated to another Arizona light show in the sky. The lightning here is amazing to watch. My wife and I stood outside next to the car port for a while last night taking in its splendor. The wind was whipping at us from the east, which means it came straight down our little driveway next to the trailer. The temp had dropped after another hot as hell day and the cool breeze felt really refreshing. Standing there, hair whipping around our faces just drinking it in, the slight smell of rain in the air; then wham!... eyeful of dust. Then the rain started, not a real rainstorm, it was that smattering of moisture that covers your car with a rash of little brown dust spots type of rain. Standing quietly in what passes for dark in the city hearing sounds akin to someone throwing handfuls of pebbles on your roof we were blessed with sideways rain spotting our faces with little cooling kisses. I‘ve noticed that horizontal rain seems to happen out here in the West a lot more often than I remember from back East.
We stood there facing into the wind, arms around each other talking about how different lightning acts here in Arizona compared to our hometowns in New England. Watching the lightning run across the bottom of a cloud then split off into 2, 3 or 5 strikes heading toward the ground is like happening upon an impromptu fireworks display, "Whoa did you see that one! Wow that was so cool, it was huge!" Faces turned to the sky we discussed the idea that there had to be a reason why the lightning here displays differently than it does back home. We decided that some science person could explain it but we really didn't care. We were there just to enjoy the show.
