Clouds over Chicago

The part of the midwest that we were in  has seen some crazy weather over the last 24 hours. We had been staying at a hotel just outside of Madison, and last night a crazy rain & hail storm blew through in about 10-15 minutes. Abe and I watched most of it from our window - lots of thunder & lightening, as well as so much hail that it looked like a very light covering of snow on the ground. Today we saw rain on and off all day, but mostly in the form on sun showers. And it was never heavy, driving rain, but very fine, light raindrops. We passed through Chicago just a little while ago as the sun was starting to go down, and I really can't remember ever seeing clouds like what we saw. It's very overcast outside, but with many layers of thick, puffy clouds. But the most interesting thing is that there were a few breaks in the clouds with the brightest sunshine streaming through. It was so remarkable that we took a quick detour off of the highway to the southernmost point of Lake Michigan just so I could get a few pictures. I'm not an expert photographer by any means, but this is what I captured.
 

And this one I got hanging out the car window as we drove towards Gary, Indiana:

I guess after a weekend that started with such a scare, it was nice to "see the light".