Although we're still technically in the springtime, summer-pattern weather has settled into our region of northern Florida. Marked by usually sunny mornings and early afternoons, the thunderstorms begin forming later on and strike in a hit-or-miss manner, after with severe localized lightning and high winds. That happened early yesterday evening at my workplace in south Gainesville. We could see, through our warehouse-sized processing plant's large glass windows ringing the building and high-up near the ceiling, the skies turning abnormally dark and the high branches of the trees outside twisting wildly in the strong wind. Having noted the impending storm, we went back to work...until lightning crashed down and essentially shut down the computerized machinery driving our work. It was a major hassle, to say the least...the fury of nature's electricity is a "striking" contrast to humankind's use of it in such a precise, controlled manner to power our technology: when the two meet, nature wins!
As I am writing this, it's a little past one in the afternoon...and I'm already seeing the puffy cumulus clouds beginning to combine. One benefit coming out of storms like yesterday's is the sudden cooling from the high, nearly unbearable afternoon heat...it sometimes drops 20-25 degrees! Still, I can do without the power blackouts, either in the homes, businesses, schools...or especially with the traffic lights. And that storm wind can do an awful lot of damage, either directly or by blowing around objects. Oh, and did I fail to mention that finding oneself outside when lightning is crashing all around can be a pretty terrifying experience? Well, that's our typical summer day here in northern Florida: excessive heat for most of the time and occasional thunderstorm attacks, with all of the accompanying effects, both good and bad...
