Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
It seems that the things we fear are sometimes the things we revere.
One could say we are well into our storm season here in Quay County. If you were awake Monday night at 10:30 p.m. and looking to the heavens, you would have seen the lightning coming in from what seemed like all sides. The Mother Nature did not disappoint, orchestrating a majestic light show across a seemingly endless sky.
Lightning is one of those beauties in which you must respect at all times, it's very essence is not one which you should toy with or ridicule. It's allure to the eyes as it flashes from cloud to cloud, ground to cloud and cloud to ground is vastly overshadowed by its lethal nature.
Defined lightning is an atmospheric electrical discharge often produced by a cumulonimbus clouds. It's often followed by thunder, travels close to 140,000 miles per hour and gets so hot it can turn sand into glass.
Of course none of us think about this when we rush out to the car to roll up the windows or bring in the clothes from the clothesline. Most of us, including me, will simply hunch down a little and think that alone is enough to detour the powerful force from striking us or our power down.
I will admit, Monday night and early Sunday morning I sat in my car, with the radio station tuned to 89.9 KNEW Portales, and was treated to what I call nature's deadly ballet.
The classical music played as the lightning danced across the sky, its stage set with swirling clouds and rain wrapped horizons.
It was nothing short of magnificent, though a couple of bolts struck a little to close for comfort and I retreated to the safety of the house.
Lightning scares me, yet entices me to know more about it. I believe that interest is well grounded.
But with the way the storms have been going this year, there's no telling, maybe fear could turn into ingenuity. Maybe I'll figure out just how to get those 1.21 Gigawatts of power to the DeLorean's flux capacitor.
Thomas Garcia is the senior writer the Quay County Sun. He can be contacted at 461-1952 or by email: