Aside from the striking aesthetic beauty of the High Plains skyscape and landscape with this young, high-based summer storm, the lightning flash here presents a bit of a mystery. At first I thought the dark gap between bright return stroke and ground was a cellular or radio tower, or similar. When I zoomed in: no! It just stopped being bright and resided atop fainter leaders, touching ground, to which the bright part of the flash connected. Amazing! Since lightning data shows this to be a negatively charged CG flash (of course, with classically upward-directed return stroke), that pronounced bright-ionization loss in the lowest area above ground is hard to explain. That is, unless somehow the camera clicked as the return stroke was just starting to close down in the bottom few hundred feet. That would be akin to photographing a bullet mid-flight, but even more improbable.
3 NE Mosquero NM (11 Jul 19) Looking W
35.796, -103.912Incomplete Return Stroke
Aside from the striking aesthetic beauty of the High Plains skyscape and landscape with this young, high-based summer storm, the lightning flash here presents a bit of a mystery. At first I thought the dark gap between bright return stroke and ground was a cellular or radio tower, or similar. When I zoomed in: no! It just stopped being bright and resided atop fainter leaders, touching ground, to which the bright part of the flash connected. Amazing! Since lightning data shows this to be a negatively charged CG flash (of course, with classically upward-directed return stroke), that pronounced bright-ionization loss in the lowest area above ground is hard to explain. That is, unless somehow the camera clicked as the return stroke was just starting to close down in the bottom few hundred feet. That would be akin to photographing a bullet mid-flight, but even more improbable.
3 NE Mosquero NM (11 Jul 19) Looking W
35.796, -103.912