WOAH!

Well, after 3 days of extreme heat (including almost 100 degrees yesterday), the heat wave finally just broke...

At 9:30pm, the temperature outside was 89 degrees. EIGHTY NINE! At almost 10pm!

Just around 8 or 8:30, Dad and I were leaving the mall and I noticed it was eerily quiet outside. WAY too quiet. No breeze, no birds chirping. Nothing. It sounded like we were in a sound-proof booth. And way off in the distance, we could see faint lighting.

By the time I got home and got on the phone with my boyfriend, the lightning was still way off but it was becoming very frequent. And I could hear the first few rumblings of thunder. And then the wind picked up... He was on his way back from near Sandy Hook (fishing) but I was glad he was in the car already. We got off the phone and I grabbed my dinner and attempted to sit outside to watch the oncoming storm, but in the couple minutes I was out there, it started going CRAZY! The wind went wild, things started flying, lightning was non-stop. So I went back inside.

And checked the radar (of course) and this is what I found:
YOWZERS! Purple?? Fuchsia?? What is that about?? And we were right in its path! I don't know (or can't remember) seeing that color for the severity of a storm in a long time. And then the warnings came...hail, 70mph winds, rain, cloud-to-ground lighting, the whole slew!

Luna was in the bedroom (with the A/C on) and was crying by the time I walked in. The storm got so severe that I actually got a bag ready to put her in in case we had to rush down to the basement or into an interior room. The lighting was so intense - non-stop for a while there. The thunder was incredible. A couple of thunders actually sounded like bombs. And my poor baby girl got so scared. I tried holding her to comfort her, but it got so bad that she freaked out and ended up scratching me to get down. As soon as I put her down, she retreated to her "safe" spot under the bed.


The storm lasted a little while - maybe a good 20 minutes or so for the worst of it. And then it passed. But while it lasted, it was incredible. My boyfriend (who was driving up the Garden State Parkway into rain and could see the lightning off in the distance) said that on the other side of the highway, it even looked like trees or something off the highway was on fire! I'd be willing to bet that was the result of cloud-to-ground lightning! He said the same thing.

Its now 10:45pm and the storm has been gone for a little while now. But you know what?? The temperature is down to 70. SEVENTY! It dropped almost 20 degrees in just about an hour. That's insane!

But let me tell you, the A/C is off and the windows are open for the first time in 4 days....and I'm loving it!