Posted by Todd Caudle on August 30, 2009 at 1:54 AM
I was out shooting lightning over Pueblo tonight and watched something I hadn't ever noticed in prior attempts. (Forgive the location, I wasn't expecting the storm and just headed to the first dark spot I could find that wasn't right underneath the storm.) Over and over again the cloud-to-cloud lightning kept following roughly the same path across the sky. I got this in five of the nine images I shot, all in succession. I'll post the three best examples.
This first one was one minute, plus an equal amount for dark frame.
Posted by Todd Caudle on August 30, 2009 at 1:55 AM
This one's 90-sec. plus equal dark frame.
Posted by Todd Caudle on August 30, 2009 at 1:56 AM
Ditto this one. Watching during the dark frames, the same path was taken by the lightning. In fact, as Murphy's Law would have it, some of the most spectacular bolts happened during the recording of the dark frame. D-OH!
Funny, i was outside shooting from my back porch (i only got a couple decent shots, not even worth posting!) and i noticed the same thing off to the south--one bolt after another in the same location. It was a pretty small but electric storm--died pretty quick after it left pueblo county.
Posted by Ken Wyatt on August 30, 2009 at 10:24 AM
Cool photos Todd. I suspect the ionized air from the initial bolt created a low-impedance path which encouraged the additional bolts to strike through the same pathway. I've observed that as well, but not for the extended time you did.
Ken
Posted by bill meikle on August 30, 2009 at 11:29 AM
Makes my hair stand on end! If I had any! Or maybe there were two centers of charge.
Very cool shots. Was this a small, localized storm where the possibilities would be less for different routes? I saw some cloud-to-cloud bolts on my way to work last night that looked like they were south of Fountain.
Posted by Brian Jackson on August 30, 2009 at 4:05 PM
Wow, those are interesting.
Posted by Todd Caudle on August 30, 2009 at 4:13 PM
As the storm moved into Pueblo, it was pretty typical, and quite intense, with lots of cloud-to-ground strikes that kept me from getting out of my truck in City Park. It seemed to take on this persona as it faded.
Posted by Dan Walters on August 30, 2009 at 7:06 PM
Great shots Todd. Interesting how it follows the same path.
Posted by Paul Wegemann on August 31, 2009 at 12:06 PM
Cool shots, Todd. I'm glad Ken mentioned the ionized air. I've noticed this phenomenon before and wondered what caused it.
Discussion
12 repliesThis first one was one minute, plus an equal amount for dark frame.
Ken