Europe had a major weather event last week. On Thursday evening just when I was doing my before-bed chores, I looked out the back door on the terrace and was astounded by a light show of biblical proportions. It was truly like nothing I had ever seen in my lifetime. The lightening was non-stop, cloud to cloud. It looked like it was doing wheelies in the heavens. I called Luther to see. A celestial light show of magnificent proportions. The lightening never touched ground. There were no thunderclaps. There was a low constant rumble. I assume it was from the lightening high above us, like 35,000 to 50,000 feet. I took a bunch of videos since it was such a unique experience. Actually scary. Here is one of them. If you can’t see it in the email subscription of this post go to NancygoestoItaly.com.
Leaving the light show on-going, I hit the sack but was awakened by the horizontal rain and wind about half an hour later. I got soaked just trying to close the shutters and windows on the back of the house. Out the front, the rain was like a monsoon. The wind was strong enough to catch and scoot all the chairs at Bar Mary across the piazza. Comical if it wasn’t so scary!
Then I read about all the even stronger storms across France, Austria, Czech Republic. Tuscany was also hard hit with two killed. Yesterday in the Washington Post I read it was a thousand mile Derecho. It began near Maiorca in the super heated Mediterranean. They had a map of the storms and intensity. I captured it. We, in Umbria, were in the red zone labeled # 2. Just south of the pink zone in Tuscany.
It was a once in a lifetime experience.
Hi Molly. We had a very bad Derecho in Virginia about ten years ago. It was the first I had heard the word too. Mostly it is a wind storm that travels a long distance doing much damage on the way.
I’ve never heard of a derecho. Good to know!
Hi Royane, I shot maybe eight videos. It was mesmerizing. Never seen anything like it.😳
It was pretty scary Louann!
truly fascinating and yes, scary too, wonderful coverage with the video, thanks
Wow wow wow! Almost Apocolyptic!
Hi Ken, Could be. I haven’t a clue. All I know was that it was doing this for over an hour. It was constant. Never seen anything last that long so consistently and so constantly. People all over Umbria made these same videos! 🤷♀️ It was amazing.
I think it’s called Ball Lightening. I saw it once flying between Denver and Albuquerque.
I know Matt. I’ve been through hurricanes in Virginia. And other storms. I could not stop taking videos of it. Both of us were agog. The lightening was non-stop. A flickering, crazy light show by the gods.
Hi Kathleen, I was in awe. We kept saying wow, over and over. Mother was angry!
Thanks Luis, glad you like the blog. That was probably the most amazing storm I have ever seen. I lived through hurricanes in Virginia and they were scary too. This one was very different!
Wow!! We used to see some violent storms when we lived in Souther Illinois, but I’ve never seen lightning like this. Amazing video!
Wow, that is truly an incredible show by Mother Nature
I am no stranger to severe thunderstorms but during the summer I spent in N Italy 43 years ago, I witnessed some incredible storms. Truly breathtaking and also frightening. Mother Nature is quite majestic. Thank you again for your blog.