‘What a thick black cloud that is!’ she said. ‘And how fast it comes! Why, I do believe it’s got wings!’ Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass 60 The terror dance began at half past ten in the evening, when a stormy front that had been tangled up for days among the mountain peaks was freed by a Siberian airstream which pushed it southwards. In less than ten minutes the half-moon that hung in the middle of a clear, starry sky was smothered by a blanket of dark, low clouds. Darkness fell suddenly on the plain. At ten forty-eight, thunder, lightning and gusts of wind marked the opening of a long night of storms. Then it started to rain and just went on and on. If the temperature had been only a couple of degrees lower it would have snowed, and the rest of this story might have taken a different course. Streets emptied. Shutters came down.
