Nerve Endings Firing Away

The tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico caused heavy rainfall in Houston today. I am not sure how Bombay is doing today but I bet it is doing much better than last year on this date. I drove back to College Station earlier today morning amidst the kind of rain that I have seen only in India. Official figures now put it at almost 9 inches of rain since morning in Houston; the second heavy downpour in as many months. Of course, global warming and weather changing threats are not quite popular here. I had a tough time driving on US-290, the northwestward-bound highway toward College Station since I could barely see the lights of the vehicle ahead of me. At some point, it felt as if someone was dumping a huge bucketful of water all over my car or I am just going through 40 miles of carwash.

Rainfall in the US is pretty mild and heavy rainfall as this one is often termed as a thunderstorm that usually lasts not more than 15-20 minutes. I have driven through quite a few thunderstorms; incidentally always drive through one when I go to a new city [has happened when I drove into Orlando, New Orleans, and Houston (last year)]. But lately, the incidence of ‘heavy’ rainfall has become more frequent and a similar downpour impeded our return to Boston from Maine. Somehow I managed to make it home to College Station after roughly taking half an hour more than I usually do.

That said, I don’t mind the rain if asked to choose it over the intense Texas heat.