Another storm

So apparently my post about clouds the other day has sort of jinxed us, as another strong band of storms came through again today, following up yesterday's dramatic weather.

A few years ago when I still had all of the black locust trees in the yard these types of storms would really have me worried, as I've seen too many locusts blow down over the past 15 years or so. Now I'm not too worried as there are just a couple of trees left to fall, and they probably wouldn't hit the house too hard -- they'd just sort of lean onto it (I hope).

So I get to just enjoy the drama of the storm: the gusty winds, the ever-changing clouds.

***

Almost anywhere I point the camera I see something interesting. Swirls, different layers -- it's so textural and beautiful! It's changing so quickly too. These shots of the same section of sky were taken about 20 seconds apart:

The bulk of the storm seems to have passed to the east:

It's really dark over there! Not much lightning activity though.

I just can't pull myself away from this -- as long as the clouds are this visually exciting, I have to keep watching (and shooting)! Usually the rain tells me when to stop and go inside...

...but not this time. There was no rain here, only wind and the threat of wet.

We ended up getting just a couple of drops of rain out of this (literally), which is fine because we got plenty yesterday. It's always nice to be able to stand around with the camera pointed upward and not have to worry about the equipment getting wet.

I mean, if rain got on the lens that would be almost like cleaning it, and that's not something I'm prepared to do yet. ;-)