what is the significance of the author mentioning two thunderstorms on august 19?

The thunderstorms are a way of introducing the "muck fires". The lightening and the muck fires are intertwined as a warning to the people about their neglect and mistreatment of nature. Mother Nature has a mind of her own, and when we abuse nature it always comes back with its own reaction to our actions. The muckfires are natures response to a loss of trees (they've been cut down), and the trees are no longer there to attract the lightening.

What three things in section august 21 might be foreshadowing later events