Orange Tornado (Tornado Naranjado)
A short story from Andres, the cable guy
The cable guy (Andres) shared a great story with me today while we waited for my internet to kick back on. He noticed one of my photos of a lightning strike and remarked on the unique serendipity of witnessing natural phenomena.
This was his story:
When I was about 6 years-old, in Mexico City, my friends and I were playing outside when we suddenly saw a dense fog bellowing in the distance high up in the air.
As we watched this uncanny cloud we noticed that it began to swirl at the center. The fog was coming toward us and the swirl intensified forming into a funnel cloud. We stood there frozen in fear watching the funnel get closer to the ground and closer to us. The funnel then became a deep orange color, almost shimmering red. The oldest kid, about 11 years-old, said “Es el diablo como tornado! He’s coming after us!”
We all started to run, but the funnel cloud was already bearing down upon us.
All of the years of our antics and mischief ran through my mind. I thought, “this is what we get for being bad kids.” We all started to run, but the funnel cloud was already bearing down upon us. There wasn’t enough time to take shelter and we were quickly engulfed by the cloud. That’s when we realized that the cloud was a kaleidoscope of monarch butterflies. They were all around us. It was like we had been spun into a magic world.
We found some bags nearby and ran around, jumping and trying to capture a few of the butterflies. We didn’t catch even one. It’s a small story but one of those things that sticks with you… you don’t forget an experience with nature like that.
Your internet should be working now.
Learn more about the Monarch Butterfly’s migration to Mexico:
