This was a prolific lightning day for me, with 70 cloud-to-ground strokes captured on the DSLR and a few interesting above-ground discharges as well. After rolling off the high mesa country to the southwest, I grabbed a room at a familiar motel in Clayton, only to scoot out of town to photograph this briefly but brightly active core closing in from the northwest. Subtle, pastel shades still infused the clouds beautifully in these minutes shortly after sunset, supplemented by the lightning itself, when sufficient daylight remained to illuminate the landscape. Several step leaders had tried to continue on the sideways journey from the area of the “big bend” in the channel, but the winner in terms of completing the circuit was the one that headed most directly groundward, fastest.
4 SW Clayton NM (2 Aug 20) Looking NW
36.4248, -103.2467Electric Evening
This was a prolific lightning day for me, with 70 cloud-to-ground strokes captured on the DSLR and a few interesting above-ground discharges as well. After rolling off the high mesa country to the southwest, I grabbed a room at a familiar motel in Clayton, only to scoot out of town to photograph this briefly but brightly active core closing in from the northwest. Subtle, pastel shades still infused the clouds beautifully in these minutes shortly after sunset, supplemented by the lightning itself, when sufficient daylight remained to illuminate the landscape. Several step leaders had tried to continue on the sideways journey from the area of the “big bend” in the channel, but the winner in terms of completing the circuit was the one that headed most directly groundward, fastest.
4 SW Clayton NM (2 Aug 20) Looking NW
36.4248, -103.2467