Stormy Weather

It has been so hot the last week or so that I am happy to see storm clouds on the horizon. As a child and teenager I was always fascinated by weather. I was brave to the point of stupidity when a storm would roll up, where most would stay in a safe place, I would be out in it looking for funnel clouds and watching lightening.
It caught up with me once, in about 1999. It was a stormy Sunday afternoon in September. It was thundering and I wanted to walk across the back yard to my grandparents house to get a coke out of the little fridge they kept on their back porch for us kids. So no shoes, I'm walking threw the back yard when a lightening bolt struck a tree about twenty 30 feet away from me. I saw a bright flash of light and a ball of fire go down a power line, then I felt something hot hit me in the head. I have never ran so fast in my life. My mom met me at the back door and checked me out. I had been hit by a hot piece of bark from the tree...bleeding like a stuck hog, we went to the ER and I got glued up. (I have a 1 inch scar in the hairline of my scalp).
Needless to say, after my near "Come to Jesus Meeting", I am a lot more respectful of the forces of nature. But I will still look at clouds and take pictures. So here are a few fotos I have taken in the past week or two of clouds and approaching storms.