How can something so beautiful...
 

...and be so destructive?

Hurricane/Storm (whatever it is now) Isabel
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/New...003247_lrg.jpg

I've said the same about women many times...

sometimes it's being able to get back far enough to see the beauty, get in there real close, and you'd see the complete and utter destructive nature.

yes. as with all things, it's relativistic.
point of view (frame of reference) is everything.

Here's a pic from space:

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com...lt-393x259.jpg

She's a hungry, angry beast.

Did anyone else notice how there is almost no other weather activity going on east of the Mississippi River right now? As I watched the updates yesterday you could see the low pressure from Isabel literally sucking all the other clouds and weather systems into her.

A lhunting cat (lion, tiger, panther) is beautiful, too, until you realize you're the one being chased. . .

Wow, those photos are amazing. Strange how we have this love-hate fascination with nature. It sustains us as it threatens us.

Thanks for posting those.

Me too. :)

As for the hurricane, I don't really see the beauty in it, but I have a hard time looking past that whole destruction and possible death thing.

Anything with Power has this attraction that other things don't have. Storms, lions, tigers, vocanoes, the ocean. They have the power to destroy and yet we are facinated with them.

Maybe it's natures way of teaching us to respect these things so that we do not end up being destroyed ourselves.

If so, It's a lesson She's been teaching since before the dawn of recorded history and we (as a species) still haven't learned. . .

It's nature at its most expressive. We just live here, mother nature runs the program.

I find the physics of it just as amazing as its physical appearance. So much energy.

Its kinda true what raeanna74 says, power is always fascinating for humans. Maybe a generalisation but people always want more people, either in control over other peoples lives or even control in their own lives. the idea of something so powerful and deadly but natural and beautiful seems to have people amazed. The sheer size and force makes u stand back and stare. We don't really get hurricanes so big in england, so maybe the fascination lies somewhere in that.

what an awesome picture

Amazing.

lurkette and I live right on the westernmost edge of Isabel's projected path. The whole state is battening down the hatches.

Well there's a thin line between good and evil as I just stated in a different topic.

I've wondered the same thing about the giant looming on my horizon, Mt. Rainier.

http://www.cotf.edu/ete/images/modul...nier2_full.jpg

Me three. ;)

BTW, the pic is awesome.

Its Mother nature at her Best, and Worst.
Gotta love the power that is generated, by both the wind and the lighting developed in these things. MAkes you see how small and insignificant we all actually are.

i get to experience the fury soon enough, since i live in RI so it should be coming thursday or friday. oh boy!

Wow! Awesome picture! Hurricanes are amazing. Living in the midwest most of my life I never realized just how much damage they can cause until I spent a couple of years on the east coast. I live on the Cape Fear Peninsula in North Carolina when they had the first shark attack off of the NC coast in like 40 years, and I experienced 3 different hurricanes. Now I'm back in the midwest---no sharks-no hurricanes. Just the way I like it.

Yeah in the Midwest, good ol' Tornadoes.. heh.

Those Pictures are breathtaking!!! (that is until you poke it in the eye...)

Awesome pic! Thanks :)

Oh man, that sucks. Post in here and let us know your ok!

Damn, BoCo, that bloody storm is *huge*. I didn't realise how big these things could get.

your horizon too, 'eh?
yeah... mt rainier is long overdue... Seattle hasn't seen traffic yet until all 2 million (?) of us try to get out of here at once =P

personally any creation of mother nature is pure beauty to me. the fact that she is so distructive is just a womens nature, thus mother nature is her name. My field of study is severe and unusual weather in the midwest region, and i find that the most beautiful child of hers are tornados. they have the power to cause such distruction yet they chose who is spared and who is not.

The fact that isabel was 200 miles across before landfall is just amazing, cuz thats one nasty storm, and it will probably cause a lot of damage but take few lives. oh well im off to class, ya for me!!