Live Action Blogging: Lightning Edition

In a very rare occurrence, WEMA had a tornado touch down in downtown Springfield.  In EMA (Eastern MA) that storm hit us during the 7:00 hour.  Naturally, I decided to sit at my window and watch the storm.

FYI:  In New England, we get awesome thunderstorms but rarely are tornadoes attached.  Also, these thunderstorms frequently occur mid to late afternoon following a sweltering and humid day.  While I cannot vouch for the humidity of today (I was playing hermit and did not leave my apartment) I can tell you that inside my apartment was super sticky.

The local news station interrupted TV programming to show us this:

The sky outside of my apartment was a crazy shade of yellow.

The storm started.  To one side of my apartment it was a beautiful sunset...but on the other, the lightning began.

Within 10 minutes it was raining so hard that the rocks outside of my window went from this:

To this (slow-mo lightning):

Obviously my extreme weather photography is beyond amazing and I will be expecting a call from The Weather Channel any day now.  The news had to break into programming to assure people that despite a tornado touch down and ongoing thunderstorms, they would cover the Bruins game as planned.  My favorite part of all of this is watching the weathermen geek out.

Weatherman 1:  "Have you ever seen anything like this in your career?"

Weatherman 2:  "No.  This is incredible!"

I got a text from R in WEMA advising me to "Get ready!  Seriously...water, blankets, radio and bike helmet."  Well it wasn't until this started that I began to get concerned.

So I quickly gathered all my storm survival essentials. This is what I came up with:

Apparently the only things I think I need to survive are:
Beach towel
8 oz of water
Cell phone with 1 battery bar
Pack of birthday candles
Small flashlight with no batteries
Barely charged iPod (it can get a radio signal)

Luckily the storm tapered off and I was still alive.  Let's knock on wood that a real disaster never happens because I would be woefully unprepared.