Summer time in the Midwest is a good place to see a storm or two. Now let it be known, I’m not a storm chaser by any means. I have friends who work very hard for some excellent weather photographs and admire their efforts greatly. But weather is really not my bag. Unless of course a good old barn blaster is headed right for me…then it’s hard to ignore it. I have witnessed a couple of these monsters come up over the last few years and the thing I remember most isn’t so much the cloud formations. It’s the sound. Before you ever seem much of a form, you hear what sounds like distant freeway traffic. Just a constant drone of the building winds…and its eery…cool…and something you never really forget. Things were very calm when this picture was taken, but once that leading edge reaches you, the winds start to howl…drenching rains begin to fall…and you know you’re in the middle of something pretty powerful. Welcome to an Iowa summer.