The end of times, or at least of the heatwave

The signs were clear over the last day or two. After a three week heatwave that smothered the Midwest, withered corn crops and dehydrated seniors in its scorching path, we had the bugs come out yesterday. Not sure what they were, but they came in flocks of unnerving, almost biblical proportions, swirling around street lamps and crowding our windows. They reminded us of what we call "thunderstorm flies" in Dutch, flocks of little flies that forecast summer thunderstorms in Holland. Yesterday's bugs were larger, but hey, this is America, where everyone thinks big and everything is big, so why not these critters.

And they did predict a severe storm coming over us tonight from the Dakotas via Minnesota and Wisconsin, which gave some desperately needed rainfall and relief from the heat. Even the weather thinks bigger here than in Holland. The 2012 Spring and Summer is pretty wet and miserable in that part of the world, causing headaches for the hosts of the Olympics, but the Dutch rain showers are much milder and seem to be much more drawn out than the spectacular high energy bursts GABROEN is seeing tonight.

A spectacle it is. It looks like the lightning energy is directly fueling our street lamps; it's about time someone figures out how to channel all those kilowatts into our electricity grid. Till that time, we'll take the relief from the heat and enjoy the spectacle.