Thankful

There was a massive, scary cloud bearing down on us Saturday night. 

 (Trust me when I say that this picture does NOT do this storm justice.  It was scary.)

We were all huddled in the basement, because there were tornadoes forming all around us, and the sirens were going off.  The sky turned that shade of green that really only means one thing, and we just waited.

(It was hard to get a good shot of the color of the sky because of the constant lightning lighting up the clouds and also because I'm naughty and really should have been down in the lowest basement; this is pretty close though)

Luckily, we didn't have any damage at all at our house.  Some neighbors had some damage in their patio furniture, plants in gardens, etc.  There are a lot of broken trees just down the road.  There were tornadoes just down the road as well.  We were very fortunate, as we have been so many times before this. 

After the storm, the most vibrant double rainbow I've ever seen was visible out the front and back of our house.  We usually get big double rainbows after these storms--the ones that go all the way across the sky unbroken.  This one looked almost solid, and I didn't get to my camera in time, unfortunately.  The picture shows the rainbow after it started fading (and yes, the sky really was that color)...

We had beautiful clouds and light just before sunset that night...

...and then we were waiting for another storm to hit.  Luckily, it ended up falling apart somewhat before it arrived, so it wasn't severe by that point anymore.

These storms rolling in and missing us by a few miles never fail to make me thankful for my home and the safety of my family.  I guess that's the good side of having this weather.  Winter makes me thankful for having a roof over my family's head, and a warm, comfortable place to sleep.  I sometimes wonder if temperate weather would lull me into forgetting these things more easily.

For some reason, our weather radio isn't working anymore.  We just got a new one to test out and see if our reception changed for some reason or if it's our old radio not working.  We'll see.  I'll feel better when we have something to alert us in the middle of the night again...