Rainfall

Thunderstorm: A transient, sometimes violent storm of thunder and lightning, often accompanied by rain and sometimes hail.

It started raining today for the first time in months. The first sign that summer is officially over and fall is now here. The smell of the rain hitting the hot, baked fields only comes once a year. We even had thunder and lightening which is so unusual for the Bay Area. It reminded me of where I grew up and the summer thunderstorms. Watching the lightening track across the sky and then counting the seconds afterwards to figure out how far away it was.

I remember once, when I was about 15, awakening in the middle of the night to the sound of continous rolling thunder. I could see the lightening flashes through my window. It was almost constant. A parade of lightening marching across the earth.

I got up and went downstairs so I could watch through the big picture window in the kitchen. As I entered the dark kitchen, I found most of my family already there. No one spoke. We just gathered in silence to view the storm. One by one the rest of the family members joined us.

I don't know how long it lasted. Forever and just a blink of the eye. The dark moonless night, constantly split in two by the bright blue-white zigzag of the lightening. Then, almost immediately, the crack of the thunder. So loud, that the windows on house rattled.

Finally, the storm moved off, walking across the sky on legs of thunder. The house returned to stillness. Without speaking, holding the experience within ourselves, we returned to our beds and to peaceful slumber.