Have Respect for Thunderstorms

Southern Ontario has experienced more than its share of thunderstorms in the last couple weeks. In fact, in the last two weeks they've been almost a daily occurrence. A single bolt of lightening can carry 10 million times the current that flows through the wires to power your home and enough energy to supply a small city for a month. Although thunder cells most commonly develop in the late afternoon, when conditions are right thunderstorms can occur any time of day any day of the year. A thunder snow storm is an unique sight but I've witnessed two.

With the ever increasing background noise we are accustomed to in our bustling cities thunderstorms often lack the impact they had in the rural Nova Scotia where I grew up in the 50ies and 60ies. There among the steep hillsides thunder rolled on and on as it echoed and re-echoed and homes built on hills were frequently struck by lightening along with lone trees, wash lines, telephone and power wires, and wire fences. TV aerials were common targets along with chimneys and stove pipes. Stories abound of kitchen stoves that popped open as a bolt of lightening headed for the nearest door or window.

With most of our telephone wires buried we don't observe my Mother's dictum that you don't go near the phone during a thunderstorm. Nor do we scurry round and unplug every major appliance at the first sign of thunder--reprogramming all those timers is too complicated. When power lines were struck lightening could course through a home and knock every fuse out of the panel and every light-bulb from its socket. Lightening struck my cousin's fence and for half a mile the wires hung loose as every staple had been driven from the fence posts to which they were attached. My Aunt Ruth discovered that her wash line had been struck when she was hanging her wash. The surging current had burnt out the wire inside but the plastic covering held until the weight of the wet clothes caused it to give way. While my father huddled under a road culvert a maple which stood on a nearby hill was struck and the trunk split four ways as if Paul Bunyon had attacked it with his axe and giant roots were knocked out of the ground for forty feet around its base.

City dwellers are more likely to scurry for cover from the rain but by the time the downpour arrives one has already been in mortal danger for some time. We've all heard about the herd of cows found huddled under a tree dead, but people are still dumb enough to shelter under a tree during a storm. I've been out riding a bike under a clear sky when I felt the hair on my head start to separate and stand on end. While delivering mail for the last 30 years I've frequently felt the hairs on my arms tingle and known it was time to seek shelter. Interesting the people you meet in such circumstances. A couple in Toronto the evening of July 1st are lucky to be alive after both were struck while waiting for fireworks to start in a local park. Lightening was attracted to their metal lawn chairs as they ran for cover. Mother Nature seems to have a way of letting us know that she's still in charge.