h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Isaias was a tropical storm, not a full-fledged hurricane, so it was safe to just enjoy watching it go by.

I got my morning walking done in comfortable temperatures with a nice breeze. After lunch, I went to legacy Place (an upscale outdoor shopping mall that has, among other things, L L Bean, WShole Foods Supermarket, Brooks Brothers, a movie theater, and a bowling alley) for the afternoon part of my walking program. After walking, I treated myself to some carrot cake from Whole Foods. It was raining a bit by this time, so I carried an umbrella just in case.

Then I bought groceries at a plaza across the street from Legacy Place.

When I got home and put the groceries away, I settled in for some hurricane-watching. I sat a my computer the way I'm doing right now. There are two windows to the left of the screen, and I watching the rain pour down and heard the wind gusts, all to the soundtrack of a transcendent Mozart piano concerto being streamed from Boston's local classical music station.

All in all, it was a magical time. In addition to listening to music and watching the hurricane, I was indulging in my favorite computer solitaire game: Freecell. Three things I love to do, all being done at once.

And it worked! I was disappointed that the very heavy rains that were forecast were not as heavy as expected.

(For what it's worth, I have a CD of the sound of rain falling. This was the real thing, folks, and I could watch it and even feel it if I went outside.)

I like rain. Rainstorms are soothing and cooling.

A happy afternoon.

How many transcendentally happy afternoons can you count on in one lifetime? Enjoy them when you have them.

I must add that I can relate to Rosa Baggins's love of weather. Storms represent the energy of the earth. Give me a good, exciting thunderstorm that I can watch from the safety of my living room!

Snow I'm not so crazy about, mainly because I'm getting old enough that I worry I won't be able to shovel snow much longer. I will have to line someone up to shovel for me in the future.

A storm can be a beautiful spectacle. We don't get them as powerful as you do. Ours are nothing compared to the hurricanes that hit your southeastern states (though some of them may still cost human lives). But being a flat country almost completely surrounded by water our main concerns are usually floodings and the loss of livestock and forests (of which many are used like farmers use their fields, the crops are just taller and take longer to ripen).

I have seen spectacular thunderstorms filmed in Africa and elsewhere and your words inspired me to go looking for some on youtube. Here are 4 (four!) hours of thunderstorm for you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVKEM4K8J8A

Global warming/mankind's "meddling" or the natural evolution cycle of the planet ? It makes no difference!

It's going to get worse and "WE" can't use history to back check onco's "WE" weren't around the last time, so it's all new.

We can't blame no one, we can only give "opinions"

This was not a big, scary storm. I don't think global warming can be blamed for it. There was wind shear in the Carolinas, so the storm's power was downgraded a bit.

Hey Paulh! I love heavy storms! And we get some whoppers here in Africa. There wasn't a good one that I can remember recently, but we do get them from time to time: good old cloudbursts dumping huge amounts of water in a very short time.

I'm just a bit scared of lightning ...

And not a fan of heavy hailstorms!

A lot of folk tend to blame that El Nino bloke ?

Weather and climate are extremely complex.

I would rather not even try to analyze what causes most weather.

"All in all, it was a magical time. In addition to listening to music and watching the hurricane, I was indulging in my favorite computer solitaire game: Freecell. Three things I love to do, all being done at once."

Excellent

Yes, I've been enjoying thunderstorms here from the safety of my living room The lightning did do some damage a few miles away from me, but I was able to just enjoy the lightshow and the sounds of the rain and rumbling.

The ocean currents have a flow cycle around the world, top layer of warm water cycles to the poles and the cold water there comes to the surface and "what goes around, comes around"

many sites on the web for maps as suchbut many want "accept this etc" so I've not put a link in