Thunder storms in KL.

I absolutely love the thunder storms in Kuala Lumpur! We had a particularly ferocious one yesterday with sheets of rain and very loud smacks of thunder. The lightning too is spectacular and we can sit on our balcony watching the storm pass by, completely mesmerised by it. Our balcony is only used as a spectator box when the rain isn't coming in sideways and drenching all of our balcony furniture. (It did this yesterday!)

The only other place I have experienced such energy and showmanship from a storm is in Johannesburg, South Africa. There the lightning strikes a pose long enough for you to take a photo of it! The electric tentacles weave across the sky, over and over again, as you watch holding your breath.

In Kuala Lumpur the rain literally looks like sheets of water falling from the sky and visibility is obscured as if you were looking through steamed up glass.
Have a look:



Petronas Towers obscured by the rain storm.


The fact that the temperature sinks slightly but is still warm enough to wear shorts and a t-shirt always brings a smile to my face. There have been times though that I have jumped out of my skin because the thunder was so close and so very loud. You can watch too, as the birds go crazy, flying around just as the storm is moving on. I call them "dare devils" because they fly around when they could still be struck by lightning. I am guessing that they are feeding on insects that are airborne because of the storm. They look like swallows but don't quote me I am not an ornithologist.
The other quite scary occurrence is how quickly the water accumulates on the roads and over flows from the drains. The water in the canal section that goes past Central Market Area, (LRT station Pasar Seni), doubles if not triples in volume. You can tell because the water level reaches right up to the graffiti artwork along the walls of the canal.



It's useful to have a passenger on your motorbike a.k.a an umbrella holder.