A Fireball Sky

On Saturday afternoon I got dressed for work as usual, grabbed my handbag and headed downtown. It was an impossibly muggy day and I clutched onto my iced coffee (or rather iced soy toffee nut latte, thank you very much) for dear life. The afternoon could be summed up in two words (as my friend Nicole likes to succinctly say): mustache sweat. Yeah. I know. The sky was clear as a bell and being in the restaurant was like working in a sauna. Powder was my new best friend. 

Around 7pm, from seemingly nowhere, the sky appeared dark. Clouds had rolled into the city in what seemed like minutes. Before I could even see a drop of rain there was the ominous growl of thunder in the distance. Not exactly what 100,000 or so people had counted on for a night of fireworks in English Bay, but hey, it's billed as rain or shine for a reason. After all, this is Vancouver, where the weather changes as quickly as Lindsay Lohan's relationship status. I'm not exactly sure when monsoon season here commenced but on Saturday it was in full force. The streets (and our poor little terrace) were awash in a matter of seconds. Lightening and thunder were nature's rock band~ noisy and rhythmic. To my delight the air temperature plummeted dramatically~ I was comfortable again! 

And then it happened. I suddenly noticed several co-workers lingering on the terrace, leaning over the balcony and staring at the sky. Puzzled, I wondered what the big deal was. Anyone who had gone out to peek seemed to come back inside with eyes that were slightly....googly. Amazed and pleasantly glazed over, silly smiles on their faces. Never one to ignore my curiousity I waded through the puddles, stuck my head into the rain and looked. Wet bangs be damned, it certainly was a sight to behold~ one I'd never seen before and yet one I fervently hope to see again. The sky was a fireball of orange. Not just a streak of orange sunset in the distance. I'm talking the entire sky itself was the colour of flame. We may as well have been on Mars. It was breathtaking, intense and magical~ and yet these words don't do it justice. 

Only pictures can capture what the night was like (enjoy these~ stolen shamelessly by various friends on Facebook). I can't look at them without getting goose bumps. It was a night not soon forgotten as I once again bow down to the beauty of nature and everything our world gives us. And if you ask me it was a far better show than any display of fireworks could ever hope to be!

(Photo 2 courtesy of Tiffany Fournier, Photo 3 courtesy of Chris Norwood, Photo 4 courtesy of Kai Wong~ thank you!)