[Part 4 of 4] This was the last of six great cloud-to-ground flashes from the same little storm; I captured four, plus the little bonus from a more-distant cell in the back lower right. The lightning split an increasingly rainy sky near Lindsay, as a core dump through the original updraft led to the nearer storm’s quick demise. The responsible convection, whose ragged, deeply textured, shrinking cloud base is illuminated at the top of this view, was rooted in a layer of inflow air well above the surface. We meteorologists refer to such storms as elevated, as opposed to surface-based convection fueled from the atmospheric boundary layer at and near the ground. Unlike further east, elevated thunderstorms in the Plains often occur without many intervening low clouds, yielding lightning-viewing and photography opportunities quite like the similarly high-based (but mostly surface-rooted) storms of the Desert Southwest. In both instances, the great depth of relatively clean sky between ground and charging area aloft—tens of thousands of feet—puts long, brilliant, deeply detailed strokes on display for our viewing pleasure and appreciation. Just don’t place oneself within the discharge, in order that one may see it and live to enjoy more. [Back to Part 1]
4 SSW Dibble OK (28 Aug 19) Looking SSW
34.9724, -97.6409Lindsay Lightning 4
[Part 4 of 4] This was the last of six great cloud-to-ground flashes from the same little storm; I captured four, plus the little bonus from a more-distant cell in the back lower right. The lightning split an increasingly rainy sky near Lindsay, as a core dump through the original updraft led to the nearer storm’s quick demise. The responsible convection, whose ragged, deeply textured, shrinking cloud base is illuminated at the top of this view, was rooted in a layer of inflow air well above the surface. We meteorologists refer to such storms as elevated, as opposed to surface-based convection fueled from the atmospheric boundary layer at and near the ground. Unlike further east, elevated thunderstorms in the Plains often occur without many intervening low clouds, yielding lightning-viewing and photography opportunities quite like the similarly high-based (but mostly surface-rooted) storms of the Desert Southwest. In both instances, the great depth of relatively clean sky between ground and charging area aloft—tens of thousands of feet—puts long, brilliant, deeply detailed strokes on display for our viewing pleasure and appreciation. Just don’t place oneself within the discharge, in order that one may see it and live to enjoy more. [Back to Part 1]
4 SSW Dibble OK (28 Aug 19) Looking SSW
34.9724, -97.6409