Weather stories

On my first night in Manhattan, the temperature had reached over 100 degrees and the city was roasting. It was too hot to sleep, so late that night I went up the Empire State building in search of cool marble floors and maybe some fresher air; right at the top it was as hot as ever but there were clouds, and looking down at the city I realised that there was suddenly a storm breaking - but instead of being far above, like every storm I had ever experienced, we were so high up that it was happening below us.

I felt like King Kong, or a Nordic goddess, so high up that I was looking down on thunder clouds and lightning flashes, hitting the streets many hundreds of feet below. And instead of seeming less substantial, the weather seemed awesome - it felt as if we were part of the storm, just for one moment on the same footing as the elements themselves.

Submitted online by Melanie Pearson, December 2, 2003