Thunder? WTF?

OK I thought the first one was a snow plow making noise hitting a mailbox or something, but the second one was definitely a rolling crash of thunder. In January. I don't see any lightning out my window, though, which is too bad. I bet lightning on snow would be gorgeous.

Could you get electrocuted by just being out in the snow somewhere near a lightning strike? Is the air between the snow flakes enough of an insulator to make this not the case? I think I need to start spreading around an urban legend about this and then have Mythbusters try and tackle it. They have a lightning machine, right?

I went to see The Darjeeling Limited tonight by myself. Before seeing it I had a bit of a sense of steadily lowering expectations for Wes Anderson's movies, as each one has been steadily less interesting than the one before. I think he needs to shoot someone else's screenplay next, since he has too many cliches and character personalities that he is relying on too often. The Darjeeling Limited confirmed all of my fears in this direction. That said, it was still a funny Wes Anderson movie with humourously awkward dialog, strained relationships and interesting sets and costumes that have a timeless quality to them which I do enjoy.

OK, the thunder seems to have subsided. Oh shit there was lightning. Damnit, I stopped watching for it, too. It's quite close, too, the thunder was only about 2 seconds behind.

OK, I googled Winter Lightning, here's what came up: Link.

Can there be lightning during a snowstorm? Lightning is usually associated with thunderstorms, and therefore is thought to be a spring and summer event. Yet lightning does occur during winter, and even during heavy snowfalls and blizzards. Winter lightning appears to be unusually powerful, associated with loud and long thunderclaps. Sometimes associated snowfalls can reach 3 inches an hour. A man was struck by lightning during a blizzard in Minneapolis during March of 1996. He is still alive...and very puzzled.

Neat.

Apparently in Chinese they have several different kinds of states or descriptions of feelings of love, mostly centered around sadness. The examples given were "sorrow-love", "tenderness-pity" and "sorrow pity". Sounds ominously like something I'd probably wind up in. There's an interesting frankness about human relationships that comes through there that is a little intimidating.

Labels: Language, Movies, Weather