Storm Chasing
Those of you who do not live out in the styx like I do don’t have the pleasure of being able to chase thunderstorms. I just got back from a nice 90-minute chase of a great storm that came in off Lake Erie and set out SE across the Chautauqua county hills towards Chautauqua Lake and Jamestown. It was quite the show.
This show had a lot of lightning to it, and we got some beautiful views of some great bolts as they ripped across the sky. As it came off the lake, the mixture of high surf, wind, and thunder made for great stimulation of all the senses. We (my wife and older son accompanied me on this chase) opened the windows of the car to get the feel of the storm around us, and had a great view from along Lake Front Blvd. My Escape has a moonroof, and we put it to good use to look straight up into the sky, following the outline of the clouds as they were backlit from the lightning flashing above them. The lightning was bright enough to light the lake up all the way to the horizon (Canada is not visible across the lake from where I live).
After the storm had passed over the lake and the city, we chased it up into the hills. Dunkirk sits on a level stretch of land that geologically speaking was once part of the Lake Erie lakebed. As you drive south of town the landscape rises aonther 700 feet or so, to an elevation of about 1300 feet. This sudden rise in elevation is what creates the notorious “lake effect” snowstorms, and it can have the same effect on thunderstorms, increasing their intensity and squeezing all the rain out of the clouds. We parked in several different spots to get a view of the storm as it lit up the sky around the farms and hills. Trees, fields, haystacks and barns took on a surreal look as the light flashed suddenly across the landscape, leaving a quick residue of the image on the windshield, as it seemed. It was quite spectacular.
I became an amateur stormchaser while living in Nebraska after graduating from UN-L. Out in the prairie you can chase storms for miles, and see them coming from as great as five miles off. As someone who had been raised in the northeast, I was unaccustomed to the terribly open spaces of the midwest, and the sight of a thunderstorm coming in across the fields was both mezmerizing and and beautiful. To see those skies fill up with dark clouds, watch the bolts explode from the cloud’s mass, drop a ton of rain, and then move on or dissipate – and to watch all this happen from two or three miles away with an unobstructed view while never getting a drop of rain on me – was an experience which captivated me. I began to chase storms at every opportunity, driving maybe 20-30 miles to follow the path of a storm. The best sight was to see a thunderstorm drop a funnel cloud and watch a tornado get born. I did see one or two touch down in open fields and then quickly disappear, but I never did see a tornado do serious damage (and I don’t think I ever want to). During my seasons with the Wisconsin Shakespeare Festival, I used to chase storms as well when not rehearsing or performing. Once I got stuck about 8 miles out of town because my car failed to start after I had turned it off to watch a storm go by, and I had to sleep in the car overnight and walk the distance back to town the next morning (no cell phones back then to call anybody).
Thunderstorms are very spiritual events. They remind you of the kind of force nature can be – at once destructive and awe-inspiring. They can cleanse the soul in the same way they scrub the atmosphere. They can put you in tune with your own struggles and tribulations. They are a force, an energy, and they cannot be ignored. If you ever get an opportunity to chase one – in actuality or metaphorically – you might give it a shot. It’s very enervating. -twl
That was indeed a wild storm. While I didn’t have opportunity to go chase it, I did watch/listen to it roll in and over my house and past. We heard the thunder for a good half-hour or more before the storm hit. It was pretty cool. At the height of it there was so much lightning it lit up the house with a minimal strobe effect. The only downfall was my youngest had never experienced so much thunder and lightning and was quite terrified. But it past pretty quickly and everyone was OK afterwards.
Thunderstorms are one of the greatest things that I miss about the east coast. We almost never get thunderstorms here. I think there’s been two since I moved here over a year ago. The northwest is beautiful in a lot of ways but every place could use a good thunderstorm now & again!