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The funnel clouds that drop from thunderheads appear white at first and only become dark from the debris in their lifting whirlwinds.

Once a prehistoric denizen of the deeps, it comes ashore on a tsunami tide, tall as a thunderhead, shrugging off artillery as it bellows a foghorn scream.

Fog often develops along the state’s coastline, but there is usually not enough wind to create the uplift needed to form the tall thunderheads, called cumulonimbus clouds, where lightning emerges, Mr. Baruffaldi said.

Overhead, thunderheads formed, dark and swollen as blood blisters.

Like their master, the South Wind, they were conflicted—half hot, dry sirocco, half stormy thunderhead.