severe thunderstorm warning

it is 4:52 am and the world outside my window is disheveled.

it is not my first u.s. thunderstorm. when i was living in nebraska we even had tornado watches and warnings (including one incident during which we had to hide in a gym).

but ever since i came to athens i find these loud, violent monsters pretty threatening. they come uninvited with winds of over 60 mph (96 kmh), almost second to second cloud to ground lightning, and in my memory more often during night than day.

so i wake up in the middle of a night by a noise that sounds warlike to me trying to figure out what is going on:

410 AM EDT TUE JUL 22 2008
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHARLESTON HAS ISSUED A
* SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR...
ATHENS COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST OHIO...
THIS INCLUDES THE CITIES OF...ATHENS...ALBANY...
NORTHWESTERN JACKSON COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST OHIO...
NORTHWESTERN MEIGS COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST OHIO...
VINTON COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST OHIO...
THIS INCLUDES THE CITIES OF...MCARTHUR...LAKE HOPE STATE PARK...
* UNTIL 445 AM EDT
* AT 407 AM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
LINE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING NICKEL SIZE
HAIL...AND DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH.  THESE STORMS WERE
LOCATED ALONG A LINE EXTENDING FROM 9 MILES NORTHWEST OF ATHENS TO
10 MILES SOUTHWEST OF MCARTHUR...OR ALONG A LINE EXTENDING FROM
NELSONVILLE TO WELLSTON...AND MOVING EAST AT 39 MPH.
* SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE NEAR...
ATHENS BY 430 AM EDT...
ALBANY BY 435 AM EDT...
IN ADDITION TO LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS...CONTINUOUS CLOUD TO
GROUND LIGHTNING IS OCCURRING WITH THIS STORM. MOVE INDOORS
IMMEDIATELY! LIGHTNING IS ONE OF NATURES NUMBER ONE KILLERS.

so there it is, the "severe thunderstorm" that the national weather service warned about.

i have never been afraid of lightning or thunder but the violent sudden attacks by nature in ohio do not compare to its much milder versions without almost any of the bad rumbling and jumbling in the sky in germany. sure, we do have occasional bad and extreme weather, but in athens these insidious roaring thunderstorms make it seem the world might end several times throughout the summer.

so i glue my eyes to the website of the athens' scalia laboratory for atmosphere analysis. temperature, wind speed, rainfall, pressure: reading the rational data to tame my (irrational?) fear helps to live through the wet darkness riddled with nervous white light in which the trees sway wildly and rain horizontally flies by my window.

it is 5:22 am. time to get up in half hour.