I can’t imagine what it would have been like to live in a world in which people didn’t have a basic understanding of the weather.

Take hail for example. Today while I was making dinner a thunderstorm rolled through our area, and for about two minutes it looked as if the world was about to end. Out of nowhere, sunshine was replace by gusting winds and little balls of ice pummeling the ground.

A few hundred years ago I imagine that would have been pretty terrifying. In 2010, I took out my phone and took this picture (which was promptly tweeted and sent to my roommate):

All hail hail!

So I guess this means Summer has arrived. A little early, but make yourself at home.

I was going to write something today about the British elections and the potentially fascinating push for a new voting system there. But maybe it’s not that interesting to everyone, so for those who are intrigued I’ll pass along this New York Times piece.