I have always been a fan of dramatic weather. Growing up in Los Angeles (where there is no weather) and Portland, OR, where it is frequently gray and overcast, always made me crave storms, thunder and lightening, snow that closes school and torrential rain. (Although I’ve come to appreciate and long for Oregon weather, now that I don’t live there anymore). Every summer from birth to age 10, my mom, my sister and I spent time in Philadelphia with my grandparents. I loved peering out the windows of their 20th story apartment in Center City, watching the lightening streak the sky, the windows rattling their protest to the ferocity of the wind, safe behind glass and dressed for sleep in my grandfather’s white cotton undershirts.

The summer I spent in Indonesia four years ago gave me an opportunity to experience extremes in weather, all in an afternoon. The day would start out 97 degrees, sunny and humid. The humidity would get thicker and thicker, until you were uncertain if there was still any oxygen in the air you were breathing, so thoroughly saturated with moisture was it. Then the clouds would creep in and the sky would shift from bright to night. The temperature would drop 20 degrees as the rain fell, like someone had tipped a large, bottomless bucket. The Indonesians were chilled to the bone by this weather, wrapping in shawls and blankets, while us Westerns were grateful for the break in heat and the experience of outdoor temps below 80 degrees.

Tonight I experienced dramatic weather as I drove from Center City out to Drexel Hill to help a friend move a couch. I traveled out of the city taking Girard to Lancaster to Route 1 (trying to avoid the worst of the evening traffic). The sky graduated from the hazy blue hanging behind the Art Museum to a dangerous steel gray by Overbrook High School (my grandmother graduated from there in 1931). As I turned onto Route 1, my sheltered 13 year old Subaru wagon was pelted with sticks, leaves and swirls of dusty silt. Raindrops the size of pebbles dropped for a few moments before abated. The thunder gods let their partner lightening take center stage tonight and it’s electric fingers streaked hypnotically. I would have preferred to watch the show from what is now my 20th story apartment in Center City, instead of driving through it, but I enjoyed it, nonetheless.