It was really warm here today (by UK standards anyway) and the sky’s just started rumbling and threatening. There’s thunder in the distance and it’s still warm and threatening to storm. I can almost hear the rain pouring down, like there’s an army of mischievous kids on the roof chucking buckets of water down on unsuspecting passersby, steaming off the hot tarmac and filling the air with that smell that can only be a Cape thunderstorm.
But then, I remember that I’m in Bath, England, not Stellenbosch, South Africa. That it doesn’t hardly ever rain properly here. That the gutters won’t overflow and the tarmac never gets hot enough to cause steam when it rains. And I’m so homesick I can barely breathe.
Posted by Meri @ 2:00 AM on May 1, 2005
Comments (2) Permalink
Comments (2) Permalink
May 1st, 2005 at 3:42 AM
Meri, I totally agree with you. Coming from Australia, some years ago now, I found myself living in London. The only intense weather sensation I experienced in that time was “cold”, and I’m sorry, that just doens’t cut it.
In Sydney we have this thing called “a southerly change”, where a weather system will roll in off the colder southern ocean after a few days of hot weather. Sometimes it will hit in the middle of the night, and waking up to this wind rattling the windows at three am is one of the secret delights of life, IMO.
I know your pain.
May 1st, 2005 at 2:31 PM
There’s a similar thing in The Cape — weather usually comes in cold fronts, from the SouthWest (where the South pole is in relation to us). You can usually see it coming for days — and if you ask someone if they think it’s going to rain, then they instinctively look in that direction. Cold fronts bring torrential rain — the gutters in Stellenbosch are literally about 2 ft wide and 3 ft deep to deal with the sudden influx of loads of water.
We also get thunderstorms, when there’s been what’s called a Berg wind (a warm wind coming from inland) — the air feels pregnant for days and then suddenly there’s lightning and thunder and glorious warm rain. People run outside to feel it on their faces.
Had it rained properly last night, I probably would have done so here.