Photographs? Worth a thousand words. Each photograph one captures contains a set of sensory perceptions. Light, smell; emotional connection to the moment. Sound also plays an important part in photography.

A fitful night of sleep passed by the other night. So I made a list of my favorite sounds that bring back memories. Some melancholy, others that remind me of places I’ve been. Appropriate photos to illustrate, of course.

  • The sound big rig tires makes at nightfall.

The edge of a cold front passes over interstate 80 on the Continental Divide in Wyoming. (Kent Porter Weather Archives)

  • The sound of a train blowing it’s horn after a late night, midwest thunderstorm.
  • The echo of your own voice on the walls of a canyon.

Apache Junction in Arizona with moonlight illumination. (Kent Porter Weather Archives)

  • Heat lightning on the horizon. Even though you can’t hear a thunderclap, your mind makes up for it what it thinks it hear.

Turnpike Strike near Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Kent Porter Weather Archives)

  • The sound of wind through a forest just before sunrise and sunset.
  • A sputtering pump jack and coyotes howling in the distance, at night.
  • Rain on a tin roof.
  • Fall leaves rustling during a late afternoon breeze.
  • An horned owl hooting at false dawn.
  • Constant thunder.

Multiple lightning strikes in West Texas. (Kent Porter Weather Archives)

  • The pitch and yaw of the A.M. band late at night in the desert.
  • Vin Scully calling a Dodgers Game.
  • The soundtrack to Fandango.
  • The indescribable sound a tornado makes as it churns over the vast Texas Panhandle.

F3 tornado near Stratford, Texas. (Kent Porter Weather Archives)

  • A windstorm.
  • Kids laughing.
  • Big Blue under moonlight.

The Pacific Ocean in Jenner under the full moon. (Kent Porter Weather Archives)

  • The crackling of a campfire.
  • A passenger jet flying high overhead while standing in the middle of nowhere.
  • Marfa, Texas after a thunderstorm.
  • Friday Night Football.
  • Wind whistling through fence pickets of a Nebraska pioneer cemetery.

Pioneer Cemetery near Needle Rock, east of Scottsbluff, Nebraska. (Kent Porter Weather Archives)

  • The silence and wonder of shooting stars.
  • A woodpecker knocking a hole through a tree after a winter storm.
  • Bullfrogs in the slough of Clear Lake.

Rodman slough on Clear Lake. (Kent Porter Weather Archives)

  • Cicada bugs droning physcadellic on a humid afternoon in the south.
  • A forest fire at night.

Forest Fire, Mendocino National Forest. (Kent Porter Weather Archives)

  • The flap of a flag in the wind.

Sunset near Santa Rosa Junior College. (Kent Porter Weather Archives)

  • Minor League baseball games.

Minor League baseball, Cedar Rapids Iowa. (Kent Porter Weather Archives)

  • The soft humid sounds of the Padre Island National Seashore, near Corpus Christi.

Mammatus clouds at sunset near Corpus Christi. (Kent Porter Weather Archives)

  • Hailstorms

Approaching hailstorm, Valentine, Nebraska. (Kent Porter Weather Archives)

  • Wind in wheatfields.

Supercell thunderstorm, Oklahoma Panhandle. (Kent Porter Weather Archives)

-Kent Porter

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