| By Bob Weaver July 2013
Perhaps the highlight of this week's storm front that got weather forecasters excited, and rightfully so, was our family walking down the road from our house about midnight to a higher point to watch the lightening show to our north.
It was 65-85 miles away, so we head no clashes of thunder. The continuing non-stop flashes likely covered an area 50 miles wide.
My mother called such lightening "wicked."
The awesomeness of Mother Nature, the night sky blanketed with bursts, streaks and fascinating squiggles of energy, caused frightening images of what might be happening to our West Virginia neighbors.
The next day we heard some reports regarding minor damage, and that the derecho did not materialize.
We did receive photos of golf ball size hail that fell on the home
of Sondra and Larry Casto of New Martinsville, leaving dents in cars and playing havoc on garden plants.
(Photo by Clint Freshour)
Then came the storm-centered rainfall that fell upon our neighboring county, Roane, causing a state of emergency to be called.
"Mother Nature may be forgiving this year, or next year, but eventually she's going to come around and whack you. You've got to be prepared." - Geraldo Rivera
"People need to be cautious because anything built by man can be destroyed by Mother Nature." - Russel Honore
"Nature is regulating our climate for free. Mother Nature, she's been doing that for free, for a long, long time. Now do you really want to get in there and do geo-engineering and all this kind of stuff?" -
Thomas Friedman
| 
