Stormin' Norman

A couple of days ago, a storm rolled through Kemah, bringing lightning, pouring rain and high winds. We stowed any loose canvas and then settled in to watch the electrical display, which was magnificent, and the rain put an ever so slight damper (sorry about the pun) on the horrendous Texas drought we've been mired in for close to a year.

I've always been a big fan of storms but have never really considered their behavior until recently. I guess it's the luxury of living in a house firmly attached to land that leads to such complacency, but there's nothing like having a home held in place by six dock lines to make you pay more attention.

The storm that hit us followed a pretty typical pattern. First a drop in air pressure, measured by the barometer (or "the barry," as I call it), then a sudden increase in wind speed, followed by lightning and finally rain. Once the rain hit, the wind slowed quite a bit, and the front was past us before I even finished my beer, though admittedly I'm a sipper.

So there you have it, the anatomy of a thunderstorm seen from the middle of a marina in the middle of an amusement park.