SUKRATA

The best fireworks I’ve ever seen

As part of an internship I had one summer, I was housed in a dormatory with many of the other interns.  It was a 3 story building in a place that didn’t have ANY other 3 story buildings.  On the 4th of July, a few of us found our way to the roof.  The roof took us to about the level of the treetops and allowed us to see for miles in every direction.  It was perfect weather to start the night, but there were storms forecast to roll in that evening, so we were hoping for the best.

Just as it was getting dark, way off in the distance, we saw lightning.  We were a little concerned that it was going to put a damper on the fireworks and make our perfect vantange point worthless.  As soon as it got dark, fireworks shows started.  A couple popped up, then a couple more.  Soon we were watching 7 different shows all at the same time.  It was really something special.

To the south, the thunderstorms had grown in size and intensity and seemed to be headed our way.  About 10 minutes into the shows, I started to watch the thunderstorm instead of the fireworks.  The storm was much larger in size than all the fireworks shows put together and the lightning displays made the fireworks displays seem like backyard bottle rockets being launched.  To the south were 3 fireworks displays backdropped by the thunderstom.  Soon, one of the displays stopped.  We assume the storm had overtaken that area.  A few minutes later, the other two shows were doused.  It didn’t matter though.  The lightning show was dazzling and the thunder started to crackle and roll and drown out all but the loudest booms from fireworks shows.

It didn’t seem to matter that 3 shows had been drown out.  We had at least 4 more to watch.  But at the same time, we didn’t really care about the other 4 shows, because the storm was the best show in town.  The lightning was blue, yellow and white and appeared in several different shapes.  The thunder was powerfully loud and crackled, boomed and rolled in many differe ways.  

We started to wonder how long the other fireworks shows would last and how long it would take the storm to reach us.  Five to ten minutes later we felt the winds and the first few sprinkles and took cover off the roof.  The storm moved in fast and battered the building with rain.  The brightness of the lightning lit the rooms of the dorm and the thunder shook everything. 

It was a hell of a storm and the best fireworks show I’ve ever seen.