It was the first time I'd seen a red-flagged severe thunderstorm watch; before today I'd thought it pretty much had to be a tornado watch to rate "particularly dangerous situation" status. But the atmospheric setup had a low probability of tornadoes — and a high probability of destructive straight-line winds and large hail.

And most of my family was right in the middle of it.

I decided to call and let my sister Pat know, just to be on the safe side, figuring she might be someplace where she didn't know about the watch. In fact, she was just getting home from a trip with my mom and my niece's twins to the library (the twins had just signed up for the summer reading program). Pat said she'd call my niece, who was out shopping with the two older girls. I told her the storms were about an hour and a half away, looking at the radar. It turned out to be more like 50-60 minutes.

A couple of hours later things had cleared up enough on radar that I felt safe in calling to check up on them. Turns out my niece Kathy had already gotten calls from her husband and someone else (mom-in-law?) before Pat called, so they were already on their way out of the mall. On the way home, they saw a wall cloud (my great-niece got pictures with her cell phone; I'm hoping they'll be posted online) and had to drive around a tree that had fallen onto the highway. When they got to my sister's they immediately joined Mom, Pat, and the other girls in the interior closet.

Summary: No damage to Pat's or Kathy's houses (Mom lives in an addition to Pat's); a tree fell in a neighbor's back yard but didn't fall on anything. Farther away there were houses damaged. Everybody in the family's safe, though.