Thunder and lightning and rain....oh my!

Do you get the play on words in this blog title? I was going to title it "When Jesus wakes you up" but I like a good play on words!

For the second time this week thunderstorms have rolled in during the nighttime or early morning-depending on how you look at it! Monday morning it was around 1:30 and again two hours later when thunderstorms quickly trekked across the area making lots of noise and retina burning lightning. I honestly think those storms had more show than rain in them.

But this morning after 4:30 a.m., or at 4:47 a.m. to be exact, Mother Nature pushed the thunderstorm button once again. And she pushed it hard this morning! This line of storms had a lot of thunder and lightning in then and rain. A LOT! A thunder clap at 4:47 a.m. was so loud and hard that it shook the windows and woke me, and probably others out of sound sleep with a startle which was not how I had planned to start the day. But after I got my heart settled down and stopped shaking I laid there listening and watching and counting. I listened to the thunder rolling in. The lightning was sharp and hard I'm sure a photographers paradise. And as I was taught as a kid I counted between the lightning and thunder to figure out how far away the storm was. And then I was thankful. Thankful for the ability to hear and see the storm. And for the opportunity to lay there and enjoy the show that was being put on. And the rain that followed.

I wasn't planning on waking up 13 minutes early but I guess someone had other plans. And despite the fact that it was a startling way to wake up it was kind of cool to see and hear the force of nature.

This is a seven image composite of a storm over Clear Lake, IA on Tuesday night. It too was loaded with a lot of lightning. You can't control nature you just have to ride the storm out and take the good with the bad!