Was up even later last night, and NOT because of reading....

Last night, where we live, we were in the path of a major storm system that was coming through the Midwest and was supposed to cause some really bad winds and rains. The first wave was supposed to occur after 7pm and cause some thunderstorms but then once the sun went down those were supposed to dissipate and then the next horrible wave was supposed to occur around 2am. In that wave, they were forecasting winds upwards of 80mph.

Last June we had a similar storm system occur that caused us to lose power for a week and caused a lot of damage in the surrounding areas. So we were worried!

Well around 8: 15 I noticed that there was a storm cell forming close to us (about half hour away) and so I hurriedly got the kids into bed, so that hopefully they would be asleep before the weather hit. We ended up getting a severe thunderstorm out of that cell, with a tornado warning. Well the cell went just south of us and we got heavy rain and some lightning, but nothing really bad. (Thank goodness for weather.com and the news so that we could pinpoint where the storm was heading!)

Then the storm cells just kept popping up and reforming over and over again along the same line. We got wave after wave of severe weather between 8:45pm and around midnight. Even the weather forecasters were saying they were shocked that this was happening and that the storms were not getting weaker.

Throughout this whole time we had several severe thunderstorm warnings and at least 2 tornado warnings (one went just south of us, and one was just north and east of us within 3 miles of us). We also had some pretty big hail--- We had some that were quarter size! It was loud!

Here is a picture of a piece of hail that Bill collected during one the storms.
To show the size here is above the quarter and next to the phone.

Finally around midnight, the first round of storms moved off but we could see on the weather radar that the second round was coming and coming fast and furious. It was gaining speed and strength as it was heading our way and the winds were being recorded at 70+ mph. That was not good.

Bill and I were both up watching the weather and trying to stay awake. Finally around 1:45 we decided to get the kids and head to the basement so that when the worst hit we would be safe. So we woke the kids up, took them to the basement and waited. We heard LOTS of rain and thunder. But we never lost power and so around 2:20 we took the kids back up to bed and there was lots of lightning but it didn't look like there was any wind damage. And then Bill and I went to bed.

So it was a LONG night again, but we are thankful that it wasn't worse than what it was. I can take getting little to no sleep as long as our family is safe.

How's the weather where you are?