For the second time the same day, the sky of northeastern Wyoming changed quickly from something rather drab and inert to a rich cloud canvas of texture and tone, a painting in motion, courtesy of the ultimate artist aloft. Early storms near Gillette sent out a huge gaseous puddle of cold outflow air, compelling our southward diversion in search of newer storms moving into a more favorable air mass. The lighting and lightning improved with these storms as they chased us east from Wright toward Newcastle. After stopping to fire off a few shots of the wonderful cloudscape, I didn’t imagine this bright filament of a peculiar lavender hue would dance all along the cloud base, just a little above and just a little below, right as I clicked the shutter. This was a wide angle view with the lightning almost overhead, so we scooted quickly down the road to avoid becoming part of the next discharge.
5 W Clareton WY (16 Jun 7) Looking WSW
43.6938, -104.783Lightning over Thunder Basin
For the second time the same day, the sky of northeastern Wyoming changed quickly from something rather drab and inert to a rich cloud canvas of texture and tone, a painting in motion, courtesy of the ultimate artist aloft. Early storms near Gillette sent out a huge gaseous puddle of cold outflow air, compelling our southward diversion in search of newer storms moving into a more favorable air mass. The lighting and lightning improved with these storms as they chased us east from Wright toward Newcastle. After stopping to fire off a few shots of the wonderful cloudscape, I didn’t imagine this bright filament of a peculiar lavender hue would dance all along the cloud base, just a little above and just a little below, right as I clicked the shutter. This was a wide angle view with the lightning almost overhead, so we scooted quickly down the road to avoid becoming part of the next discharge.
5 W Clareton WY (16 Jun 7) Looking WSW
43.6938, -104.783