Lightning Tonight and Roswell

Above, a diorama at the Roswell International UFO Museum and Research Center. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

New Mexico is well-known for its lightning storms. After tonight, I can see why. We've had several since I've been here. But tonight's storm was the topper.

Tonight brought the most spectacular lightning display I've seen in years. It was as if four King Ghidorahs parked themselves around Jamestown, New Mexico and one directly above. It even drove Sierra into hiding!

This went on for about an hour with heavy rains. The lightning was all around and continuous. It began while I was watching The Big Trail, John Wayne's first starring movie that was produced in 1929. I shut off the living room lamp and enjoyed the light show in the dark.

Then, it began again around 9:20

I commented that I could easily see how a flying saucer could be zapped by a powerful lightning storm and crash near Roswell and Corona, New Mexico in July 1947.

Above, yours truly at the Roswell welcome sign last month.

For the fun of it, here is what took place on July 4, 1947 according to witnesses:

Friday, July 4, 1947

William M. Woody and his father, working at night on their farm, see a bright light with a "flame-like" tail streaking across the sky. The Woodys observe the object for some twenty to thirty seconds before it disappears below the horizon, some "forty miles north of Roswell." 

Between 11:00 and 11:30 p.m., two Catholic nuns, Mother Superior Mary Bernadette and Sister Capistrano, at Saint Mary's Hospital in Roswell, record in a logbook entry seeing "a brilliant light plunge to Earth." The location of the object is north of Roswell, and the nuns believe it to be a disabled aircraft. 

During the "worst lightning storm he had ever seen," William W. "Mac" Brazel, who operates the J.B. Foster ranch, hears an "odd sort of explosion, not like ordinary thunder, but different." 

At 11:27 p.m., the radar sites operated by military personnel continue to track the UFO that has befuddled them for three days now. The object seems to "pulsate" repeatedly, then explodes in a "starburst." The military believes that the object it has been tracking has suddenly crashed.

Yep, if Roswell's storm was anything like this one (or even more powerful), I can see how it could down a UFO. Not even aliens can withstand Mother Nature!

I took a video of some lightning as the storm moved to the northeast. I posted it on Facebook.

Well, we can sure use the water and that helps with my water bill.

To read more on Roswell, go here.