Thursday, April 14, 2011

Fire in the sky


So flying into Raleigh, NC over the weekend, I witnessed a phenomenon that I've encountered many, many times in my air travels, but that always completely enthralls me - watching a thunderstorm at 30,000+ feet.
While you would think that watching a thunderstorm is, well, watching a thunderstorm, there is something about being parallel to or above the thunderstorm that makes it absolutely beautiful. The clouds keep lighting up the darkness in the distance, and you can watch the small bolts of lightening jumping around inside the clouds themselves.
There is something about watching this that is incredibly soothing to me, even though as passengers we're certainly at the mercy of the pilot, and especially of the storm, as to whether we will "weather the storm" (that's literal). But fear not, because airplane instruments and pilots are on the ball, and therefore the plane will typically fly around the storm if at all possible.
After years of taking cross-country flights, I can confidently say that I have little to no fear of flying, and therefore have been able to bask in the beauty that can be taken in from such a high altitude.

3 comments:

Naomi said...

Did you take this shot? It's pretty cool.

Unknown said...

I wish - I didn't have my camera with me on the plane.

Kathy Page said...

I agree, it is spectacular to watch from the plane. We watched one for nearly an hour yesterday, June 19, 2011 flying from Boston to Phoenix. Amazing!