Last nights thunderstorm

Last night we finally had a thunder storm and I'm really surprised that we haven't yet had one. It was fantastically hot again yesterday though the temperature is set to start dropping off soon. In the morning there was a clear sky, but by lunch time clouds had started to form and they justgathered more and more in the sky.
It was the first American football match of the season yesterday too and we walked onto campus to soak up some of the atmosphere, on the way we saw this cloud, it looked so pretty with the sun shining behind it giving it a real definition.

By the time we got back to the apartment, the whole sky was covered over with a thick layer of cloud. It didn't take long from then for the storm to start.

The storm started quite suddenly with the thunder and lightlening, must have been around 3Km away and then it started to rain and get much darker. The rain drops that initially fell were huge and it wasn't long until the gorund was covered, as the storm moved across the rain got much more heavy and was practically flooding out the ground. Eventually as the storm passed right above us the winds picked up to quite a pace and the wind was almost horizontal and even from the balcony between the apartment floors I got soaked on the whole front of my body.
This photo shows the extent of the rain, so heavy you couldn't see the lights properly. They had to turn an emergency beacon on somewhere west of us and there were search lights in the sky. It didn't really help that the storm was occuring at night fall.















These are just a couple of the lightening strikes, the first was much further away at the start of the storm, but contrasting the sky colour to the next picture taken much later on when it was night you can see just how much the sky was lit up. The lightening was just fantastic and went on continuously through out the storm and for a couple of hours after it had passed us it was so bright. when the thunder cracked when the storm was over us it was deafening and really quite scary and I'm not easily scared by thunder storms.

You wouldn't know that there was a storm though now as everywhere is bone dry again and things are just running normally.

Heat!

It is sooo hot and is supposed to stay like this for a couple more days. We are in the mid-thirites and it's just not good for working in.

I noticed today on the satellite image that it looks like you've ad some fairly dry weather most days recently, shamae about the bank holiday weekend though.

Lectures

So classes started on monday and I have decided to take satellite meteorology, statistical meteorology, Earth's past climate and Applications of weather and climate to comoditiy and economy. I am particularly excited about the last module as it is brand new and there is nothing like this that you can take in the UK, also I am thinking that I might go and work in the private sector after my degree. Soo far all of my lecturers seem really nice as do most people in them. In statistics we have clickers which send a signal to our lecturers computer so we can do quizzes in class which seems quite a novelty at the moment, but I'm sure as the questions get harder that will quickly ware off. I've included a few pictures of the department for you to see, at the top is the National Weather Centre (NWC) where the school of meteorology is situated on the 5th floor. In here is all the American met-office equivalent, the storm prediction centre and NOAA who track storms and things amoungst other organisations.


This is the view down from the 3rd floor, as the ceilings are so high, being on the 5th floor is like being in the 9th of a normal building so we are quite high up and from the observation deck on 7th you can see for miles.









This is the ground floor where our globe is hanging and projected onto it is often the satellite images or radar, sometimes there are forecasts or it is like another planet with facts wizzing around it, the other day it was on Venus. Today though was exciting looking at the satellite images as there is hurricane Gustav heading for the Gulf of Mexico.














The flying cow where we can eat pretty much anything, but I prefer to make my own luch as most places that serve you give you a substantial amount of food.















I've got a few assignments to start and some books to find cheaply somewhere too now so I'd better go as I also need to sleep as I'm up for lectures tomorrow.

Bye xxx

Campus

And some of campus too.

Accomodation

Thought you might like to see some pictures f where I'm living.

Orientation week

Right so I got here after a bit of a delay in Newark NJ after successfully meeting everyone after my flight from Manchester. We went straight to Sooner Legends our hotel which was so great and we took full advantage of the out door pool on sunday to recooperate from all the travelling. We also decided to take a walk for a bit of adventuring and found Walmart, which actually does sell everything and there have been several trips there this last week to get everything we need to set up our apartments. We decided to have a picnic that afternoon, and as there was no where else to go we sat outside on the grass at Walmart. Later in the evening we went out for a meal about a 10 minute walk from the hotel and managed to get beeped at and shouted at 3 times just for walking the crazy people.

Monday we all packed up and went to campus to get all manner of administration done and ended up queing for ages but finnaly we were assigned our apartments and were taken to settle in, and were also taken to Walmart as there was no bedding and bins curiously and for a few other things but I lve my apartment and am so glad that I'm sharing with Becky. We also share with french Laura and Japanese Yu-Ko.

On tuesday we went for a look around the National Weather centre NWC where the met office is and where we all have lectures, and sorted out enrollment for classes which start next monday now. It is truely a fantastic place to study and has so many facilities. It was also an exciting day as we recieved our car and packed in it were all manners of pots pans, irons and other things saving us so much set up money. The car is a really smooth ride but the petrol stations are just stupid, a pay first system, it slowed us down for 15 minutes anyway.

Other than all the official things there have been numerous free food events and trying out the pool and hot tub at Traditions. I have scouted out the large swimming pool and gym and am able to use them for free which is great.

It's very hot today and am just about to go out to the pool now. It's possible to get up to 104F which is 40C to everyone else.

Bye for now xxx

Since