As reported in the Daily Mail. I was out watching the storm and never saw this. The flashes were very momentary.
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“The flashes were very momentary.”
Well,…. DUH!!!!
No..I mean momentary. If you’ve ever been in a Texas gully washer or New Mexico and compared the strikes to this, then you’d know what I meant. Instead of just being snarky.
Its called a photographic after-image. (Something like it is the inverted retinal after-image cause by phophenes persisting after the initial triggering.[which is why you watch movies instead of 24 frames per second with slightly different poses on them.])
What a person perceives as a series of lightning strikes, a photograph records as single image.
I’m pretty sure this is a long exposure, as the bright yellow light trail from car headlights, streaking across the bridge, basically gives away. This camera had its lens aperture open for more than a few seconds. For all the lights to burn into a single horizontal line. So if more than one exposure was being taken. Then it was intended to capture multiple lightning strikes. Which could have happen all at once, or over some time.
Where and when in the USA is a good place to observe lightning? Its been years since I have seen a good bolt.
There is a place in South America that gets them every evening for several months in the wet seasons. Great fantastic panoramas of lightning. I need to google that too. In the USA–hard to google more than Florida but they don’t get specific as to when….or I quit too soon. West Coast at all?
Santa Fe New Mexico
Phoenix AZ during their monsoon season, basically now. I’ve never seen lightning or heard thunder like that. you could feel the electricity in the air, it was awesome. In the true sense of the word.
Thanks All. I did this search a few years ago and didn’t get much but the WWW offers more and more each year. Just now I googled (lightning map USA) and found this nice website I’ll spend some time on.
http://intellicast.com/Storm/Severe/Lightning.aspx
Even better in Colorado at 11,000 feet, above the tree line, hiking on a ridge.
Take a change of underwear.
The Tampa Bay area of Florida in particular.
Love lightning, that is one awesome photo.
I’m down here in Carson California, about a hour ago we had a lightning strike, the resulting noise was horrendous. Looks like California is getting some interesting weather for a Friday the 13th…
I’m in the Florida panhandle. We get so much lightning here that abortion clinics spontaneously combust.
Thanks, as usual the replies are better than the story.
I can remember setting on a front porch during a lightening storm and not having any trouble seeing it. The problem is modern homes block out the view as well as providing better protection.
A lot of locations including half dome tend be extra scenic during the right kind of weather. Most large suspension bridges are going to get hit pretty regularly as do most ultra tall buildings.
‘Course people regularly get killed when trapped in a t-storm on half done. I’m not quite up for that level of excitement…
The bottom of the Grand Canyon. The thunder reverberates up and down the canyon. Tremendous.
Oh yeah…Canyon Storms are truly awesome. Again a change of undies recommended.
I was home with my family during the thunder and lightning storm. My oldest boy (6) counted 40 separate lightning flashes over an hour period which is a lot for around here.
That’s a lucky photo.
There is plenty of lightning in this video:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120305.html
I was standing just inside off my deck enjoying a good t-storm when lightning struck a pine tree 10 feet off the deck. It exploded, showering the deck (and me!) with bits of steaming wood. Quite loud. Was home, so a quick shower and underwear change wasn’t a problem….hearing loss was a bother for a few hours.
It was a long exposure. You wouldn’t see this all at one instant.
The article starts out saying lightning never strikes twice but
high structures like the empire state building are hit again and again.
Must be something in the water. Even the bridges seem to be either “flaming” or “sparkling.”
😉
My buddy lives in Tucson, AZ; he sells stock video footage on Pond5.com. He has lots of lightning clips. Search for vadervideo.
Nice website. This is about the “best” lightning vid I saw. Still pales by comparison doesn’t it? Got to at least have sound along with it. Thanks.
http://pond5.com/stock-footage/798959/super-lightning-strike-in-slow-motion-3-dancing-strike-chutes.html
Tha Bay photo is interesting from an engineering perspective. It supports the “inverted cone” model. The large tower “shields” areas just below and surrounding it by attracting most of the ground strikes. But further away, outside the field of the tower’s ground “cone”, lamp posts are hit.
It’s a 20 second exposure according to the photographer’s, Phil McGrew, Flickr site. I knew it had to be a long exposure because there are no vehicle headlights visible and the deck of the bridge has a uniform glow that is the same color as the deck lights. It wasn’t a “split-second moment” of time as quoted in the article.
sargasso_c: Notice how the strikes that hit the lamp posts are almost equidistant from both towers. Also, the bolts at the towers are brighter and thicker than the bolts that strike the posts in the middle of the towers.
A few years back while visiting friends in Albuquerque, New Mexico, one of the guys and I took an afternoon hike up Sandia Peak. About halfway up, we sheltered with a dozen or so people in a little cave or grotto while a storm passed overhead. Lightning hit the mountain above us about a half-dozen times and each time the mountain gave out a very basso groan. The sound came not through the air, but from the very rocks surrounding us. It was an interesting experience. Quite bracing.
Back Igor, back… <maniacal laughter> Its alive. Its alive! Ha ha ha ha a haaa.
I can just imagine the drivers, seeing this on the bridge, up close and personal, are saying something like, “Holy Sh*t!”
Keep the shutter open long enough and every square inch of the bridge will get hit by lightning.
Holy! Is that a real picture that was captured or is is Photoshoped? If it’s real, man…….. Speechless..