It's hard to believe it's almost a year since we've moved to Portland. We lived in Fort Worth, Texas, for nearly three years, & although I'm not a meteorologist & I haven't actually looked this up, I have theories about why the storms in Fort Worth in particular are so awful.
Did I not mention the storms in Fort Worth were awful? Oh yes! Lots of wind & thunder & lightning. Skies darkening menacingly & suddenly. Flash floods & power outages. They seemed to always roll in from the west, where the city began & the plains ended. & that was my theory:
Something about the size of a city, plus the way it absorbs heat, acts as a kind of natural barrier for extreme weather, which seems to need space in order to build its destructive strength.
Is that true? According to this article in the Dallas Morning News, no. Instead, the explanation for the intensity & frequency of Texas thunderstorms involves "the jet stream, moist air, & lingering cold fronts."
But, you see, thunderstorms in Fort Worth seem way more intense & ferocious than those on the other side of the metroplex, which is way more populated - & farther away from the storm, which has to travel through a giant collection of cities, suburbs, highways, even an enormous airport.
So in that willful way that is the hallmark of being a human, I will continue to believe there's something to the geography of Fort Worth that invites worse thunderstorms - mainly its position as the first major city the storms will encounter as they come from the west. It just seems true. You know?
& anyway, there's only been a couple of thunderstorms since we arrived here, & I haven't missed them at all. The steady rain of Portland is its own kind of drama, really.
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