I was perusing through an old book, "History of the Town of Paris," written in 1880 by a man from Central New York. The book is fascinating, as it tells the story of the founding of one part of the Mohawk Valley. I highly recommend it.

In the book, amongst the author's descriptions of panthers (once roaming the New York frontier), teenage boys' pranks that seem ubiquitous in any age, and the incessant narratives of the ancient and present geology (nee Darwinism, thank God), there are obscure stories about freaks of weather. The author makes mention of a very destructive tornado that struck the area in May 1836. He described it in vivid detail (who lost what, etc). It's notable because 1.) the author describes it as an extremely unusual event, and 2.) there is no mention in the book of another such occurrence (not that I have seen).

Which makes the following video all the more odd! Perhaps you've seen it, it made the rounds online last week. But a lady captures a powerful tornado plowing through the New York State Thruway near Amsterdam, NY. Tornadoes are supposed to be rare, but this summer we're getting at least 3 every month.

The video is very lengthy-- you can cut to the chase at around 5:45. I watched the entire video. Earlier, the videographer captures a dazzling arc of blue and green-colored halos near the horizon. Watching, we wondered what it could be-- Off Road Lights??? A fallen tractor-trailer?! Then it hit us-- an electrical transformer fell!



I heard news tonight that another tornado touched down earlier today, north of me.

Just plain weird.