So I'm sitting here watching Spielberg's War of the Worlds...I only really watch the bits with the tripods walking around shooting shaZam! at the moment.  Something about those badasses just fascinates me...mostly how they walk.  You wouldn't normally think about how difficult it would be for a tripod to walk.  Nutty.  Anyway...

SO I walked outside just a second ago to take a peep about and there's this huge hook cloud over me with lots of lightning and activity...but there's no wind and it's dead silent.  I'm surrounded by 30,000 cows, though, so if something pops up I've got good odds of survival and I'll get pics.

l8r

Love that kind of weather, which is part of the reason why I love summers in the midwest.

Reminds me of driving home one night after work.  I was working overtime and hadn't left until 9pm.  The drive home was 2 hours.  I had been watching a massive storm develop from the southwest most of the evening.  Just as I crested a hill I saw this pink glow from the southern horizon.  About that time the radio went dark.  Not just the station I was listening to, all of them.  In a period of around 10 seconds the entire sky from eastern horizon to western horizon was enveloped in tendrils of lightning glowing and dancing around in the sky.  The whole band advanced north directly over me, dropping bolts all over.  It was bright enough that it turned 10pm black into daylight.  It looked like something out of a science fiction movie.  All of a sudden, the sky went pitch black.  A few seconds later the radio station came back.

You can bet the hair on the back of my neck stood up for a while.

Like I said, I live for prarie thunderstorms.   

 

I grew up in Illinois and I've lived in Kansas for the past 6 years.  I've spent probably two or three dozen evenings in a dark garage watching UNREAL storms develop and come through.  I'm fascinated by them.  We had a fantastic one here last night in Kansas as well.

-Turd.

yeah the eastern panhandle, western Oklahoma, and southern Kansas were all alive with the same system.  I got to see most of it.  Flat lands are cool for that.

<-- envious 

those tripods are badass, I love the noise sound they make.

spielderg's are the best I've seen...they looked menacing and devastating and their movement was just amazing.  All the other interpretations, though fitting Well's original description a little better, their movements and general "look" just didn't seem right...they never seemed to walk right.  I'm disappointed there wasn't more tripod action in Spielberg's flick.

But yeah their sound were great.  Who'd guess aliens advanced enough to ride lightning would still need turbines and hydraulics?  I think it would have been better had they been described more as biomechanoids instead of machines...but it was amazing Wells came up with all he did considering he wrote the book in the late 1800's.