And the thunder rolls...

Various parts of Canada are known for having/seeing sever storm action, whether wind, waves, snow, sleet, rain, hail, thunder or lightning. Or, in some places, you can get all of the above! Unfortunately, I was raised in the one area of Canada (I swear!) that hardly sees a lick of any of the above. Yes, we get rain. Lots of it. Rarely though in storm-form and regardless of how many raindrops on British Columbian has seen in his or her lifetime, the one day it happens to be falling in buckets, we are still fascinated.

When I was in high school I took Geography and that was the first time I learned about severe weather. Well, I think perhaps the movie Twister was my first experience with hard-core weather, but learning about it and studying about it got me hooked. And perhaps because I was raised in an area where not many thunderstorms ever hit, nevermind hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards etc, I was all the more fascinated. In fact, at one point I wanted to be a storm chaser. And somewhere along the line I thought (in my many moments that I changed my mind career-wise) that I might become a meteorologist. Weather fascinated me. It still does! I think the two channels I watched most as a child were the History channel and the Weather Network! I remember as a child and even as a teenager...heck, let's be honest here, as an adult, every winter when living in BC, come wintertime I would be checking the weather network like crazy every day for any signs of snow coming our way. And this was not because I wanted a snow day. It wasn't because I particularly cared for snow angels or snowmen either. It was simply because I wanted to see flakes floating from the sky, preferably in blizzard form with lots and lots of wind.

In my early years of University, I was determined no matter what to major in Geography. Well, except for the time I wanted to be a nurse, and a doctor, and a psychologist. Then that wouldn't have worked, but most of the time it was Geography. In fact the first Geography course I ever took was with Steve Marsh at the University of the Fraser Valley. It was Geography 101: Weather & Climate. An interesting tid-bit about that course, is that my mum took it with me! At the time she was finishing up an Associate of Arts Degree and needed a lab science and waited until I could take one with her. In all honesty she just needed me help. ha!

Eventually I took Geography 201: Climatology and failed miserably. Well, I didn't fail, but a C+ was a failure to me. I was simply not good at the mathematical calculations required to understand weather. What?!? You mean I need MATH to understand weather? What crock is this? The wind moves, the funnels form, cold fronts meet warm fronts and they mate and birth a tornado, why do I need math to know this? COME ON! Ahem.

And here ladies and gentlmen ends my quest to become a meteorologist. I think I'll stick with teaching. However, my love of all things frontal didn't seem to change and so I still frequented NOAA doing my own tornado watch, even though there wasn't a chance in all the heavens that one would land in my backyard. If I was smart I wouldn't want one to. In grade 12 I went on an international student excursion. Really it was a conference for geeky smart kids, in Whitewater, Wisconsin. Oooo YES! They get tornados! I was really excited. I didn't really care about economics unless GDP was going to produce a fascinating funnel cloud for me. And after praying to the economic gods, I got my wish. The siren went and everyone was huddled in the cement basements of the university of Wisconsin, Whitewater, watching CNN and following the tornado warnings. Everyone except me. No, I was outside, camera in hand waiting like Juliet waited for Romeo (minus all the blowing leafy bits and dirt getting in both eyes and mouth). The wind picked up so fast right along with my heart rate. Somewhere in the cacophonic mess of sirens and swirling leaves I heard my chaperones screaming at me to get inside and don't be crazy...Crazy Canadians, what they never seen a bloody upturned building before? crazy Canadians never seen a tornado in their life...

I eventually wandered downstairs. The action outside was much more to my liking but I was locked in the cement dungeon, left to only hear about the details from some news anchor. The tornado ended up touching outside of town so I wouldn't have seen it anyway, but still! aw Ma!

Anyway. I have been living for 2.5 months up here in good old Yukon and in my 2.5 months I have witnessed/heard a multitude of thunderstorms to tickle my fancy for the next year. Last night in particular was a bad one. We actually had two: one in the evening and one in the night (around 12:30am-1:00am). I happened to still be awake for round 2 and I quickly decided that whoever pissed God off will have me to deal with if I don't get any sleep around here...the thunder rolled overhead like someone was bowling. If God had a dog that was it's most fiercest growl and the lightning and thunder sounded like snapping wires which frequently startled me just as I was about to nod off. Don't get me wrong though, I sleepily enjoyed every minute of it.

Other great stormy areas I have been to include Edmonton, Alberta where I have actually seen bolts of lightning strike the sky. That was the coolest. When it comes to rain and snow and hail and wind, nothing beats the coast of Newfoundland! My first month there we had two power outages, six-hundred feet of snow and winds that were around 118km/hr (and NOT hurricane weather). The wind would whip at my house I feared the roof would come off it was that fierce. Again, I loved every second of it.

To conclude: If storms were a lover I'd marry it.

Here are a few photos of storms I have captured, which are few but I love them nonetheless.

This was in Montana last summer.

This was off the Alaska Highway between Whitehorse and Haines Junction, Yukon.

What are the best storms you've seen? Comment below, I wanna know!

We're driving through Nebraska, Rob and I, this summer and I'm hoping we see some funnel action!