Several minutes deeper into twilight, and following a singular, loud blast into one of the Grand Canyon’s natural amphitheaters, the increasingly dense rain core and surrounding terrain lit up with another cloud-to-ground discharge into the canyon. This delicate yet dangerous beauty had a bonus: a cloud-to-air flash above that was nearly parallel for about half the visible distance before veering off to the right. After this, the thunderstorm emptied its rain load both in-canyon and overhead, shutting down my lightning shooting for the canyon and for the trip (I’d start heading home the next day). What an amazing trip it was, with several great lightning scenes, downbursts, sunsets, cloudscapes, and haboobs in multiple places.
5 NNE Tusayan AZ (14 Jul 21) Looking N
36.0479, -112.0937