While storms swept through the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex yesterday, today they created a new and dangerous line far east of the area. On our walk tonight, Jodi and I looked west and saw nothing but clear blue skies. East of us, however, we saw a wall of yellow-gray storm clouds. Their anvil-shaped up-drafts towered 3-4km over the ground, and every second there were bursts of bright cloud-to-cloud lightning. We could see forked tongues of bright yellow lightning streaking from the cloud base to the top. While I know that negative electric charge accumulates at the base of the storm, it was a visceral reminder of how true this is to see electricity streaking upwards into the sky.
I couldn’t help but to stop walking and watch the storms. Their fury, visible from this far west, reminded me that far worse befell the towns in the path of the storms.
