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season: midsummer
section: old names for storms
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the dog days storm. it comes when the air is so heavy you can feel it pressing down. the buildup takes all day and the relief when it breaks is physical. the old farmers said you could smell it coming.

a cloudburst. not just rain but the whole sky falling at once. half an inch in ten minutes. the ditches fill, the creek jumps its bank, and then it stops. the sun comes out like nothing happened.

heat lightning. no thunder, just the sky flickering at the horizon. the storm is too far away to hear but the light carries. the old people watched it from the porch and called it "the shimmer."

the tropical remnant. what is left of a hurricane after it has come inland and lost its name. days of grey warm rain. everything floods slowly. the old farmers knew it by the way the wind circled.