St. Louis got rocked by a pretty tough storm last night that knocked out power throughout much of the metro area, blew part of the roof off Lambert Airport and onto the I-70, and left most of the streetlights off even this morning. Our hotel was unpowered until around 11pm last night, but then the AC came back on and we were able to sleep. The storm itself blew a nice cold breeze over the city, but once it passed the temps climbed back up into the 80s (and hotter inside) which made it hard to get comfortable. Much of the city proper won't get power for one to three days.
The lightning was spectacular, both cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-earth. I learned on the radio this morning that you can't have lightning without ice in the storm, which is why oceanic storms (like hurricanes) rarely have lightning. News reports say a tornado actually touched down in the city last night, but I haven't seen it confirmed yet... and alas, I didn't get to see it with my own eyes. I did get to see bushes and trashcans blown down the street along with other debris, but it was too dark to take pictures. Despite the "severe thunderstorm warning" and the tornado sirens, some other hotel guests still decided to drive out into the deluge to keep whatever appointments were worth risking their lives for.
Well, if you can survive the storms, and the summer humidity, you'll only have one last test...the miserable winters with slush, and black ice, and bitter humid cold. However, there are few places on earth more beautiful in Fall and Spring. Not to mention there are many beautiful and pleasant summer and winter days, as well.
Plenty hot here, too.
Glad that you made it through OK... my parents had a 50-foot tree limb fall on the street and hit one of their cars. Fortunately, it looks like it's repairable.