Thunderstorms in western Washington are uncommon events: the dew point is rarely high enough and the Pacific Ocean cools the air. Cool, dry air does not foment thunderstorms. It was quite the event on Thursday, then, when a series of thunderstorms lobbed 2,500 bolts at the ground in the Puget Sound region.
I snapped the copy of the blitzortung.org map right around the peak of the activity.
It depicts lightning strikes in the Pacific Northwest during the period of the storm. For a part of the world that experiences lightning only in occasional small batches, this was
a storm that made even the least superstitious wonder about angry gods and recall the mythological events following the death of Thor when the sun turns black, earth sinks in the sea, the hot stars down from
heaven are whirled; fierce grows the steam and the life‐feeding flame, till fire leaps high about heaven itself.
¹ It was very easy during the height of the storm to listen to the thunder bore through the air and sympathize with those who find it necessary to offer supernatural explanations for events in the world around them.