tornado unfulfilled

This past Monday evening we had quite a storm happening over our small, rural town. If you, like me, can enjoy the beauty of nature even when it's those blackest of storm clouds, then this was really an incredibly, awe-inspiring sight. I actually sat on my back porch and watched the clouds move swiftly overhead.

Part of what made it most incredible was the multiple layers of clouds that moved in very obviously different directions. Those dark clouds that were lowest, closest to me, were moving swiftly from the south to the north. The brunt of the storm, with the biggest, blackest clouds were coming from the north and moving south-southeast.

And then I saw it.

I knew it was going to happen...had to happen. South-moving winds, met north-moving winds.

One of the lower clouds in the north-to-s.s.e moving winds, dropped low enough to get caught by the north-moving winds and I could see the cloud stretch back and curl around. And then it caught another cloud, and it, too, curled around.

Not more than a mile from me, holding over a neighborhood in town, was this half-mile-wide, beautifully formed circle of cloud, slowly swirling.

I called to my wife, not with fear or anxiety, but with excitement. "Look at that," I pointed. "I swear, that is the beginning of a tornado. Isn't it beautiful? Just watch!" And we did.

Perhaps I knew, deep down, that the winds weren't swift enough to create a damaging tornado, or perhaps, because I was watching it as it formed and mentally planning on where to get the kids if it became serious, I was never worried about it. Instead, I was absolutely awed.

For thirty, maybe forty-five seconds, this perfectly formed whirlpool of clouds circled over the town before the stronger north-to-s.s.e winds took over and blew it away

This was a vision that I'll not likely ever forget. How truly beautiful it was to see the beginning of something that could have developed into something devastating.