A Few Of My Favorite Thunderstorms

A thunderstorm looms over an Addison County,
Vermont farm house in 2013

It's one of those lazy days of summer in which I don't feel like doing much, or thinking about anything.

Since there's a chance of scattered thunderstorms late this afternoon and evening, I'm just going to throw up a few of my favorite Vermont thunderstorm photos in recent years.

We tend not to get those super dramatic storms like in the Great Plains and Midwest, but Vermont summer storms are impressive, but maybe in a more subdued, artistic fashion

Today's storms are unlikely to be severe, but they might be on the strong side in a couple places. They might even approach severe limits east of the Green Mountains, but those would be very few and far between.

If these storms develop, and it it IS an if, I hope they'll at least be photogenic, like past storms I've seen.

Very likely you've seen them before, but they're worth another look.  Click on each image to make them bigger and easier to see.

I'll even throw in a video at the bottom of this post.

So here we go:

A distant thunderstorm at sunset a few years ago.
Thie photo was taken in St. Albans, Vermont.
The storm was in northern Addison County,
Vermont, so quite a ways away. 

A menacing shelf cloud over St. Albans Bay, Vermont, July 2013.

Chaotic skies over St. Albans, Vermont May, 2014

Starksboro, Vermont, June 2015

Developing thunderstorm looking west from St. Albans, Vermont
July, 2016

A thunderhead north of St. Albans, Vermont creates a profile
portrait, July, 2019

Developing thunderstorm at sunset, June 2020

Now a video: One of the most intense, favorite thunderstorms I've experienced, July 4, 2012. I feel bad for the dude on the bicycle 18-19 seconds in:

Touching, Important Video On Family Momentos Lost In Tornadoes, Storms

Those tornadoes that devastated huge swaths of the Midwest last month scattered photographs and other important papers and family mementos for miles, sometimes dozens or even hundreds of miles.

Photographs found scattered far and wide
in Oklahoma and nearby states after a big
May tornado in Moore, OK. A group worked to
return the photos to their owners.  

When disasters strike and people have to hastily evacuate, often the first thing they grab are the pictures.   Which is certainly understandable. I'd do the same thing. But often, there's no time to save them.

The worst part of a disaster like those tornadoes last month is when loved ones are hurt or killed.

The second worst part is when those photographic memories and touchstones are lost.

Meteorologist Eric Holthaus has a great idea or reminder that nowadays, you can put your photos in "The Cloud" as they say, so they are kept off site and accessible pretty much no matter what happens.

I also love that there's a Facebook page that acts as a clearing house for people who find photographs and documents scattered far and wide by the tornadoes. That way, some of them can get back to their owners.

There have been other, similar, wonderful efforts after a series of tornadoes across the South in 2011 and the twisters in Oklahoma earlier this year. 

Most of the photos are damaged, but nowadays you can restore a lot of them.

Holthaus also today linked to a wonderful YouTube video that is a tribute to the tornado victims in the Midwest and is a music video for Laura Marier's really great song called "Running For Photographs"

Here's the moving, must watch video: