My First Sudani Thunderstorm

I thought I've seen storms - till today! We were still at the MD's office, just finishing a meeting, when we heard a big explosion, followed closely by an even bigger one! Being Lebanese, and having just come out of a horrible one in Lebanon recently it's natural to think it was shelling.

When we looked out the window, we could see a huge black cloud approaching - not just in the sky, but all over the place. Inside that cloud were constant flashes of lightning. Quite a sight.

After finishing from the office I made my way to the Agency (another rush job!). As we met we could hear the water pouring down. It was raining, but kept coming down stronger and stronger. At one point, after all the lightning, the power went out. Being absolutely and utterly useless without electricity, we were naturally attracted to the entrance. The Agency is actually a villa, that was turned into an ad agency. So we're standing there, (the art director, deputy managing director and myself are all new to this country) in disbelief at the amount of water that is falling down from the sky. But the more amazing thing was the lightning and thunder. I kid you not when I say it was constant. The lightning was like a flourescent light refusing to fully light. Not 2 seconds passed without a flash or two. Being so dark all around, with all the constant flashing actually hurt my eyes. And the thunder was also constantly growling, like an angry dog. This went on for about 20 minutes before it sort of quieted down a bit.

I couldn't take any photos from my phone, because it was all dark - the power was out almost everywhere. That's when I learned another peculiar fact. In Sudan they purposefully shut the power down during heavy rainfall because the high tension wires are not properly insulated. Some guy could be walking down the street, minding his own business, and step into a puddle that is electrified, only to end his life. It used to happen often that after a storm people used to find electricuted and burned cadavers just laying on the streets. Solution? Just shut down the power when it's raining heavily. Simple.