In the backyard, watching the horizon to the northwest, towards where the beltline curves to the north (this version of southwest Madison weirdly lacks anything blocking my line of sight). Looks like mushroom clouds, but not quite. Oh, that one is definitely a mushroom cloud, and growing fast. Yelled at everyone to get to the basement ASAP. Grabbed Marilla and ran. She and I made it to the basement in time but nobody else did. The ground shook and the basement filled (partly) with sand (your basement filling with sand is a thing that happens when your city gets hit with an atom bomb, you see).

Later I was with some folks on a cross-country trip. We were crossing a graveley desert area, a bit higher elevation than the land to the south, east (where we were coming from) and west (where we were going to). Forests to the north and south. Another nuclear explosion appeared in the distance ahead of us. Quick, dig into the gravel and pile it up in front. Doesn't seem like it'd be enough to protect us, but why not try.

First part was very reminiscent of another dream I had where there were incoming missles (with non-nuclear warheads) falling into what felt like Middleton, though it had no physical resemblance. Maybe it was 2021-12-23, which mentions "incoming missles getting intercepted by flak guns at the airport?"