The great part about living in the Gulf South and in particular, New Orleans, are the afternoon thunderstorms that have typically a grand crescendo, then the sky opens and a waterfall pours out. The smell is unique to Louisiana – I’ve recognized from a plane hovering over New Orleans. A colleague wrote about how wonderful the smell of the desert is after a storm. I imagine it to have a certain sweet freshness to it – an openness. That is not the smell here – it is thicker, albeith lighter than humid air, and its freshness comes from having just eased the oppressive heat that was threatening to bury you.
It’s different, familiar, comforting, always welcome (except for dogs).