Really Big Thunderhead Cells

I was driving north on Interstate 5 around Orland and I looked up into the sky to see the biggest Thunderhead I had seen since flying in a plane to Chicago from Saint Louis in 2008 with my family. I was really amazed and stopped at a Rest Stop to take a picture of it for my wife who asked me to.

However, then I had to drive under it which was really really dark and then it began to rain. Also, I was a little worried because it reminded me a little of how tornado cells work too. And the weather has been about as strange as I have ever seen it in California for some time now.

No Tornadoes that I could see. However, the rain came down like it was Hawaii in huge drops and then people got scared on the freeway and pulled off the freeway because they couldn't see. However, I"m used to a lot of storms in my life (both rain, wind and snowstorms) so driving through storms doesn't really bother me anymore. So, as people pulled off I just got into the fast lane and slowed down to about 45 or 50 and kept moving forwards while trying to see the road. A little bit of hail got me to slow down this much so it wouldn't blow out the windshield but if never got bigger than my littlest fingernail so at 45 or 50 I was still okay and it wasn't going to blow out my windshield.

Then that storm area faded out behind me on the freeway and then I saw another one equally as big ahead. This time violet and white and blue lightning was crashing out of it. I was talking to a friend of mine how a car or truck is a faraday cage and so you don't get electrocuted usually while driving a car. About the worst thing that might happen is your tires might blow out if the lightning is strong enough to get from the top of the roof (or antenna) down to the cars wheels and then make to to the ground somehow your tires might blow up or melt. But, that usually is a fluke and doesn't happen much unless you are sticking your leg to the ground while your car is stationary and hit by lightning at the same moment.

So, as the hail grew in size I decided to go up close behind a semi truck so it wouldn't take out my windshield on my 4 wheel drive truck. After it got smaller hail I passed the truck. I was sort of grateful to be through this because most of the way from Orland to Redding it was like this and it sort of wore out my concentration if you have ever driven in something like this with windshield wipers beating as fast as they can while trying to miss drivers not as good as you or experienced as you as a driver and terrified out of their minds as they try to pull to the side of the road and stop.