On this magical night between Tucson and Phoenix, a train of mountain-initiated thunderstorms blowing their way across the desert floor would offer numerous CG lightning flashes in astounding variety, sometimes in single-photo multiples up to seven, sometimes in cores or dust or on the immediate edge of both, sometimes profusely forked, and sometimes, as in this instance, off by itself, away from a heavy core, and with barely any forking. Even then, the tall, highly irregular path of least resistance followed down by the step leader (and lit up by the return stroke) yielded a brilliant and unique channel shape, which is much longer than it seems due to the two-dimensionality of a photograph. We don’t see (only can infer) the components of its channel toward and away from the camera, which surely were as complex as those we see from side to side here.
5 NE Eloy AZ (9 Jul 21) Looking NW
32.8216, -111.5