I haven’t slept well for days. The weather radio, a necessity when living on the edge of Tornado Alley, goes off every night in advance of severe thunderstorms that have rolled through nearly every night for the past week.
The Steven Hawking voice of the National Weather Service Austin-San Antonio explains that there are dangerous storms in Travis, Williamson, Hays, Blanco and Burnet counties. There is also always flash flooding in Burnet County. Always. Every time it rains.
Some nights it wakes me up to tell me to stay away from windows because of storms that produce golf ball sized hail. I usually stay in bed and listen to the thunder boom closer and closer. I watch the lightning flicker across the ceiling, illuminating the fan as it increases in frequency and violence before drifting off to eastern counties.
I think tonight will bring more of the same.
As I was working at the computer, I noticed the room filled with the strangest orange glow. I went outside and saw the skies to the south were dark, purple and forbidding. To the north and west the setting sun had cast the whole sky in an unnatural dirty orangish glow, not the orange of Longhorn victories and summer nights, but a sickly smoky orange. Overhead the orange and the purple met in an eerie and twisted swirl of clouds.
I suspect the weather radio will be keeping me up again tonight.
James Brush is a teacher and writer who lives in Austin, TX. He tries to get outside as much as possible.
It’s the electric storms that terrify me the most – a house under construction in the next section from mine was hit by lightning – burned the roof down to nothing – on those nights I camp outside Case’s door – just in case. BTW – Fred, you and your better halves made the Chronicle here as donors for Periwinkle Foundation – famous!
I love our central Texas storms. They’re usually violent, stunning, and brief. Damage does get done, but so far (knock on drywall) I’ve been lucky, but when the Oasis burned down a year ago it was quite a reminder of the dangers these storms can pose.
Interesting that we were listed in the Chronicle. Hopefully I won’t have to get a new identity from the witness protection program.