Two thunderclouds collide over Rakvere

Before noon on 2 July 1857, the feast of the Visitation of Mary, two thunderclouds rose at once, one from the west and one from the east, and met right over the little town of Rakvere. First came a heavy downpour mixed with hail, then lightning struck the sexton's house, smashing its chimney, splitting the roof in four places and breaking the doors and windows. More thunder followed, and near the Põdruse station a whole line of the new telegraph poles was shattered. Thank God, wrote Perno Postimees, nothing worse happened; the same column reported two drunken carters who drove off a bridge into the river.