Did your tent come with a rain fly? Usually that does a pretty good job of keeping the rain off, so you don't have to rig up a tarp over it. I also like to spray the outside of the rain fly and bottom edge of the tent with Scotchgard Outdoor water shield for added water repellant.
Paul, this tent is a super cheapie from Walmart. It's an
Ozark Trail 6'5' Scout Junior Dome Tent . It packs small and it's light but the fly is a napkin.
Scotchgarding it is a great idea. Our idea was to use it like we would a tarp shelter but this tent, as it comes it not waterproof on the sides. The tarp worked really well to keep us dry until the wind changed direction and the back of the tent, which I sacrificed to give the fire more cover, got wet.
The other advantage of the tarp, and one of the main reasons I carry one, is that it keeps the area between the shelter and fire dry, along with keeping the pile of firewood from getting wet. We moved the tent right up beside the fire to keep us warm and I stayed up all night to feed the it and jump on any embers that popped into the tent. Thanks to that tarp, I didn't get wet at all as I moved in a out to do that.
Also, I noticed you don't seem to have anything under your tent. That is where I normally put a tarp. The ground is where you loose most of your heat, so the more insulation you have between you and the ground, the better. It also serves double duty of keeping the bottom of the tent clean and protected from rips/holes/tears which can allow water (or critters) to get inside.
We normally use a footprint but left it out on this trip because we're trying to go lightweight. We did have other space blankets that we could have used under the tent but decided that we would use the tent floor
instead of a groundsheet. It did really well. It's bathtub style and kept the rain out well. We were set up on a bit of a rise, which definitely helped when the rain kicked up, and we also cleared the area for the tent really well so try to remove anything pokey.
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