Scattered

The ferocious storm that swept across the eastern US has all of us wondering if changes in our climate are starting to speed up – record breaking temperatures almost daily [104 degrees two days in a row where I live – unheard of].  Driving on 66 West on Friday just after dark, we saw the spectacular lightening show ahead of us, not a typical summer thunderstorm’s that pops up across the sky like strobe lights  in vertical flashes from the sky’s dome to earth, one after the other, intense. This storm produced non-stop horizontal  slashes, like a swordsman ripping  through black velvet. And oddly, no thunder. When the car began to shake and rock from side to side,  debris started to blow all around us, trash, small limbs, pebbles and dust, like a western squall with tumbleweeds flying. It was wind, we later heard, that at its peak had reached 90 miles an hour. Tiny pellets of hail followed, then a brief torrential downpour. And with that, maybe 20 minutes, the storm had passed. The devastation was terrible, all of which has been on the news.  Clean up was exhausting in the heat. We were spared major damage but others lost 100+ year old trees.

Related concerns,  I continue to worry about the paucity of bees in my flower and vegetable gardens and my missing bats.  I have an infestation of mini-centipedes in my basement that has never happened before. Troubling. Mother Nature has been putting us on notice for awhile now – I think she’s decided it’s time to speed things up.  Have we caught on yet? http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/weather/july-dec12/climate_07-02.html