Thunderstorms....BOOM!

I awoke this morning to thunderstorms, but to peek out my window it didn't really look that bad outside.  But the thunder kept booming.  Shortly therafter the rain started and I fell back to sleep. I woke back up a bit later.  Rain stopped, not too cloudy but not bright and sunny.  Then after I've been up for about an hour, without much change it the view out my window, the big thunder booms start back up.  I'm thinking the storms must be behind me.  It is weird though to be having such big thunder booms and not cloaked in black clouds like we would be at home.