Strange Light

We've been in a rather active weather pattern around here, which is very normal for June and July.  It seems like at any given hour of the day I can look out the kitchen window that faces the west and see some sort of storm rolling in.  They are usually fast moving and minor and the rain has been good.  This weekend was a wild one.  I went to a wedding in Fargo of a college friend (I went by myself and it was awesome!) and it was fun taking pictures outside with the dark clouds looming behind us.  At least the downpour came at the end of the night after I didn't care about my hair anymore!  slammed with hail.  Real hail that I had never seen until recently that is compared Meanwhile, the many other places in the state, including my hometown, were getting to various balls.  Golf balls were the most common sized balls.  That was on Saturday and then yesterday another vicious system lumbered across the state.  A city in Western ND received so much hail that the siding on houses was shredded and the hail looked like snow several inches deep.  The town's nursing home had hallways lined with skylights which were all shattered and the whole place was full of water and hailstones.  We knew that was coming our way and put our flowers under the deck but we didn't get hail. We just got a lot of rain and a strobe light show of lightening.  Oh, and the whole sky glowed orange for several minutes and it was like something out of the Book of Revlations. 

It was 9:30 and I was trying to get the kids to bed (yes, they stay up that late.  Darkness comes around 11:00 p.m. here and we are often still playing outside at 8:30 or 9:00.  It's a long day and I try to get them settled down earlier but it never works).  I came down the hallway into the living room and dining room area and noticed the windows were glowing.  I actually had a moment of panic, thinking something was on fire outside or wondering if it was the apocalypse.  It is one of the strangest things I have ever seen.  Of course, it was just the setting sun lighting up the wall cloud from behin as it was making its exit. 

It was so weird.  Allan was actually hiding in the laundry room because he was not comfortable with this at all.  Poor cat.  It made me think of a historical fiction novel I read a few years ago that took place during the 1400's when there was a total exclipse of the sun and the world went dark and no one knew why because they thought the Earth was flat and all so they all panicked and started looting and debauching.  And then the sun came out again and everything was normal.  This glow lasted about ten minutes and I will never forget it. 

I heard another round of storms and rain in the early morning hours and now another little cell of thunderstorms is approaching and my weather.com app is beeping.  Thunderstorms fill me with anticipation but this is getting to be too much.  I hate to wish summer away but I am looking forward to the more pleasant September weather patterns!