It does. We had an hour of good lightning before any rain or thunder began.

We really do have some spectacular storms! I agree, it's easy to see how primitive people would ascribe such immense power to some supreme being!

It got pretty wicked here for a bit, too. Pretty sure my A/C unit got struck by lightning. It shut down after an extremely loud boom and it's not coming back on.

Our experiences certainly do color our perspectives. That had to be terribly frightening, and I certainly don't intend to demean the destructive power lightning can have by expressing joy in observing the phenomena. I have great respect for the potential destructive wrath of nature's extremes and am aware of lightning being a common wildfire cause. I live in the prairie where tornadoes are our most terrifying and destructive weather threat, and we have learned to take them very seriously.

Agreed. I do still enjoy my creature comforts. Power outs a downer.

I have a nice covered front porch that is also excellent for watching the storms pass. This rain brought our temps down over 20 degrees. It was a beautifully cool evening after it passed!

Yes, I lived in SoCal for many years and they are rare. Probably saw more on TV and movies about LA than ever saw in person. Moved to Wichita and loved the storms, but not the tornadoes.

@Boxdoc Agreed, no love of tornadoes here in the midwest, but I do love the fabulous thunder and light shows.

Yes. I more so had to hear about them growing up in Portland.. Headed East, I drove all night toward lightning in the Ozarks. Unreal, wrecked cars, power outage and flooding as well. Now further East, I’m the only neighbor on his porch watching them pass by, suppose they know what they’re missing

My hounds are with you, not fans. You would not like the American midwest.

Oh, there is nothing quite like the sky view in Mara during a storm!

@Amzungu ..... especially if you breathe in deeply to savour the scents that are released.

@Petter Petter! You've been there, too? Such a wonderful place...literally....full of wonder!

@LucyLoohoo The Cottars, of Cottar's Camp in the Mara, were sort of relatives by distant marriage. I have many happy memories of the Mara over many years.

@Petter Now there are THREE of us who've been so very fortunate! Perhaps there are more?

@LucyLoohoo All my family of course, and some old girlfriends. I love the Kenya bush country, and the Narok area. Many a time, on a Saturday, I would go there with a friend, drive off the road right into the bush, then pitch a small tent, and light a fire. I always chose full moon nights and we would sit up, barbecuing meat and maize, and gazing out over the moonlit landscape, dotted with grazing animals. Then, having watched the dawn, we would crawl into the tent and sleep until it became too hot.
One such night we had a herd of zebra stampede right past us, with a leopard in pursuit. Magic!

@Petter You remind me of hearing a strange CRUNCHING sound outside the tent...crawling over to the bottom, peeking through....to see two hippos happily enjoying a meal. Knowing what I know about hippos...I crawled back and got into bed again! Magical!

@LucyLoohoo I too have gazed at a grazing hippo. The number one rule to remember is "Never get between a hippo and the water". Of course, getting between a mother and her child is another death sentence. We used to sail on Lake Naivasha, but even we atheists "religiously" avoided a shallow area that hippos inhabited. One bite can chomp a sailing dinghy in half!
I had a thoroughly spoiled early life - I probably still have in many ways.

@Petter Almost exactly a year ago...we were paddling on Lake Naivasha...noticing that the flamingo population had dropped dramatically!. That was true in all the lakes we saw, and I was concerned, until my Kenyan friends took us to Lake Boringa.

Want to see flamingos? Literally MILLIONS of them have turned the lake a brilliant pink!

This is such an unusual event that a local school had brought about six buses of middle-school kids to see the birds/hot springs. It's not a tourist area at all and when the kids saw mzungus like us (one very tall man with snow white hair and one blonde/blue eyed woman) well...nothing would do but we HAD to pose for probably a hundred photos! It began with friendly arms around shoulders and ended with tight embraces! (Some of them wanted to touch my hair....)

I'm always happy for meetings like that one because it shows we're all just people, after all. And, unexpected ''stops'' on a journey can sometimes be the best part of the day!

@LucyLoohoo No flamingo on lake Naivasha, it's not saline, but lakes Elementaita and Nakuru are, and have them. Likewise Natron and Magadi.
Lake Bogoria and it's surroundings is awe inspiring. Only 2 miles across, but 20 miles long, it has constant geysers of boiling water dotted around the desert-like western shore. However, the Eastern shore sits below the steep sides of the rift valley. Here, there is a thick forest of fig trees, with crystal clear streams of cold water flowing rapidly through the trees and into the lake. A glorious place in which to pitch camp.
The Northern end of lake Bogoria has a stream of fresh water fed by lake Baringo, just a few miles away. I have seen snakes, including cobras, swimming across the surface of lake Baringo, on their way to the island right in the centre of the lake. On the island there is a prehistoric games board, hollowed out of a large, flat rock, on whoch I have played "Omweso", a modern descendant of this game that dates back thousands of years.
I think the board at Island Camp was dated to around 15,000 years ago.

@Petter I MISSPOKE! It was Nakuru! Mea culpa! Felix (my Kenyan friend) tells me the tourist trade in the Bogoria area area has essentially dried up. Of course, the virus has killed the tourist business in all of Kenya. I don't know what the folks who work in the game lodges will do. The lodges have shut down. Sopa lodges, too. I didn't know about that game board....are you talking about a game played with small stones? I've seen that one.

@LucyLoohoo Omweso can be played with any small items. Ugandans like to use dried coffee beans.
I could go on for hours about my homeland, but this general forum is not really the right place!
Have you read this?
[mojacar.ws]
(I designed it to work best on a computer screen, or a large tablet, rather than a phone - although it might be readable if the phone is held sidrways.)

Thank you! It was an awesome storm!

I did not know that word. Interesting. I love all storms, but especially the very electrical ones.

@Amzungu In that case you need to live in Kampala, where they are a regular occurrence all year round.

Wow, that sounds like one crazy close storm. I can't imagine how loud the thunder was. Or how rude the awakening must have been in the morning!

Wonderful experience - except the fresh snow part.

@Petter

True about the snow. It was late spring and we werent prepared for snow. No weather alert when left on the trip. We were in shorts and had a five mile hike out. Lol