GREENFIELD — A white bolt of lightening split the air in front of Poet’s Seat Tower at the height of Wednesday’s thunderstorm — sizzling down into the grass of Beacon Field.
Beneath the tower, a few stormchasers gasped, huddling against the walls to stay dry and escape driving wind.
The thunderbolt was a shocking premonition to a gorgeous pink sunset that graced the heavens above the region’s county seat that evening — a pastel calm after the storm.
“They were thunderstorm clouds; cumulonimbus clouds,” said National Weather Service Meteorologist Eleanor Vallier-Talbot, by way of explanation. “It’s a combination of cumulous and nimbus, a cumulous cloud with rain.”
Just after 4 p.m., the National Weather Service issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch throughout the region. During the storm, Vallier-Talbot said the weather service received reports of half-dollar sized hail, mostly from Westfield.
“As the moisture goes up into the cloud, when it gets a certain level, it freezes,” she said. “Today, the freezing level wasn’t that high.”
As the night wore on, because of the sun’s angle and the height of the clouds, the sunset was particularly spectacular.
Later, around 8:30 p.m., mist rolled over distant hills down into the Deerfield Valley, backlit against the contrasting blue underbellies of dispersing clouds. A spirit of community reigned on the top of Poet’s Seat Tower well into dusk, as lights twinkled on and neighbors enjoyed the beauty of nature together.