Thunderstorm Thursday

Last Saturday night marked the return of the wonderful Wisconsin spring weather with awesome thunderstorms full of sky-filling lightning. It may be a big stretch, but rain is another way to write about thirsty Thursday! And it's lightly raining today as well!

I wasn't always a big fan of thunderstorms. I will never forget one storm, when I was 6 or 7 maybe. I was watching something on TV, but because I was interested in the weather then I was keeping an eye on the updates at the bottom of the screen. Then all of a sudden the tornado sirens went off. I immediately sprung up from my seat and ran around the house looking for our two cats. When I found them I grabbed them and ran to the basement.

My parents had always told me to go to the room farthest from our South and West walls in the basement if there was a tornado. So where did I go? (Having not really paid attention to directions related to my house) I went to the exact opposite room that I was supposed to. My parents found me holding the cats and told me to come with them and move to the correct room. Needless to say, no tornado touched down and I freaked out over nothing.

I think that was the last time I was really scared of a thunderstorm and now I just love watching them roll in. When I was growing up we had a creek in our backyard and when we'd have heavy rain it would flood through the distance of two yards and almost reached our house a few times, but it was really cool to watch.

My favorite part of thunderstorms is the lightning that comes with it. Sometimes it's just awe-inspiring. Like last weekend, I was out with some friends and while we were walking the entire sky lit up with multiple bolts of lightning. It got really bright and felt like it was noon on a cloudy day, when in reality it was 10:30 at night. I would love to have the opportunity to see lightning like this at some point in my life:

I don't know how I'd get the chance to see this, but a guy can dream right?? Not only are thunderstorms fun to watch come in, but I love the smell of a fresh rainfall, but not the smell of worms/fish that often comes along with it. Nothing beats a good thunderstorm on a summer day when you can sit on a porch and watch the storm roll in. Something I'm looking forward to this summer!