Seattle is hands down the most beautiful place I've lived, and is easily a top three for most beautiful places I've been overall (I put Kauai and the big island of Hawaii higher, if you were wondering). Despite all of the natural beauty, and those epic mountain ranges, it lacks one of my favorite natural phenomenon: thunderstorms. No joke, you know that weather radar they show in most places with lightning strikes? On Seattle TV, they would lead the news with that map showing two hits on it. It was kind of funny.
When you grow up in the Midwest, of course thunderstorms are part of your spring and summer. Weather is reasonably predictable in the short term there, because you can see those lines of storms both on radar and by simply looking up at the sky. It's always amazing to see it roll in. Unfortunately, you do get tornados there, and all things considered, it's crazy that I've only seen one myself (and a couple of waterspouts, if that counts).
Florida gets a ton of storms in the summer too. They don't have the same kind of consistent organization though. They do often move in lines, but the direction changes a bit. More importantly, they just kind of spawn starting in the afternoon. You almost always get sun in the morning, but rain is pretty common later in the day. It's real wrath-of-God kind of rain, too. At least the tornados are more rare, unless associated with a hurricane or tropical storm (we've had neither since moving).
In any case, I've always loved thunderstorms. It kind of reminds you of where you fit in the world. The storms teach humility in the face of nature. The cats, however, are not always fans.
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