lightning!

So before I started working from home as a photo editor, I was a meteorologist. Even though I left my job and started something new (a long story), I still love weather. Every meteorologist I know nerds out over major weather events. Some go wild over winter storms, but my big fascination is with severe storms.

Tonight we had derecho - a fast moving storm system associated with very high winds - move through the area. To give you an idea of how quickly this storm moved, the system moved from the midwest to DC in just six hours.

Anyway, Jon and I attempted to (or I should say, I begged him to) go for a quick drive to check out the insane lightning just before the storm hit. We were monitoring the storm, and knew we were just minutes away from having the gust front come through. We made it just a few blocks away when the gust front came hard, blowing limbs from trees. We were dodging debris like they did in Twister. Already the streets were littered with branches, so we turned back.

After the major part of the storm moved through, we tried a second time. Trees are down all over the place. I managed to get shots of some lightning while I was out, and since we are of the lucky few in town (in the whole area, even) who still have power, I have uploaded them already. I had kind of a crude setup: I had my Sigma 10-20mm wide angle on my 7D, and perched it on the car door with the window down. I had my tripod with me, but because it was still raining I didn't feel like using it. The exposure was only two seconds, so it worked well enough. Enjoy, and be safe out there.