Weather Anomalies

The other night I happened to watch a show on the History Channel about the Bermuda Triangle. Like many others I have always been fascinated by the Triangle, but pretty much agree with scientists and their theories that the conditions in the Triangle are fostered by the Gulf Stream, currents, and air/water temperatures - ingredients that conjure up weather anomalies. Anomalies is a catch all term at times for just about anything that does not really fit the bell-shaped curve of a normal distribution. Well, I encountered an anomaly on January 2, 2006. The photograph that you see here was taken on January 2, 2006 - late in the day. What was remarkable about that day and the fog is that there were thunderstorms off and on all day. Thunderstorms that seemed to almost make that fog come alive with electricity (or maybe with ionized particles). I surely do not know enough or very much at all about atmospheric chemistry, but that was an anomaly that I think that I recognized. It just happened too that that day there was a mine disaster in a nearby community - a tragic mine disaster that probably was caused by an electric charge. A second weather anomaly, that I have no photographs of, but which left an indelible mark was the July 4th, 1999 blowdown in northeastern Minnesota. It just happened that we were part of the crowd that weekend attending concerts at Bayfront Park in Duluth with Bob Dylan and Paul Simon the first night and then America and other performers the second night. The weather that weekend was memorable. For those who do not know there was a blowdown that weekend, of over 400,000 acres of Forest. We were fortunate that we were not in the blowdown itself, but I do remember the weather in Duluth that weekend. It was electric and it was an anomaly. I'm sure many of you have experienced similar weather events. I suppose that is why a lot of us do watch the Weather Channel so much.