Born and raised in the Midwest I've always loved this period in the late summer where storm clusters erupt in the Northern Plains and then begin their 12+ hour journey to my doorstep. As a kid on summer vacation it was always wild to wake up under a severe thunderstorm watch with a big line of storms blasting in from the west first thing in the morning.
It hasn't lost an ounce of joy as I've gotten older. I woke up this morning to a cluster of storms shoving out of Iowa into western Illinois. Admittedly this was suggested by weather forecast models last night so the morning surprise was more of an excited confirmation of overnight hopes, but the stormy morning joy still hits the same.
I got a little morning work done and then grabbed my coffee and cameras and set up north of Urbana, IL as the storms rolled in. A cute shelf cloud, a little lightning, and some gusty winds and torrential rains. More tonight?