Chase Logs 2007
As the Sun Sets: Dual Lightning Storms
June 15-16, 2007
8:30pm-4:30am
White Bear Township, MN
There was nothing too spectacular about today's forecast--a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the evening hours for the Twin Cities. Conditions during the daytime hours were typical of the entire week, abundant sunshine and temperatures in the high 80's and low 90's. The dewpoint thankfully held around 60 degrees, making for semi-bearable heat indexes. For the past week, a front had remained stalled over the Red River of the North valley and eastern South Dakota, dropping over half a foot of rain in some areas and leading to widespread flooding. The ridge of high pressure that had kept the Twin Cities high and dry was expected to break down and allow the front to finally punch through the Cities on Friday evening. But no severe weather was expected.I began tracking the front shortly after 3:00pm as it triggered numerous showers and thunderstorms over central Minnesota, prompting a lone severe thunderstorm warning for Stearns County. Six years of lightning photography taught me that the best lightning bolts can stem from the weakest of storms. So I geared up for a possible lightning hunt and drove over to my Dad's house in White Bear Township at 6:30pm for the weekend. By 8:00pm the western skies in Ramsey County darkened as the frontal system neared. But the storms remained well below severe limits. As flashes of lightning lit the undersides of the storms, I set up the DSLR for its first ever lightning chase. I could only pray that it would be a success. The last rays of the sun cast a surreal blue glow across the landscape as I set the camera's f-stop to f/3.5 and shutter speed to 20 seconds and began to fire to the north, where I had seen numerous flashes and even a few C-G bolts. The photos below show the storm approaching looking WNW (first two photos) and north.
It took only five minutes of near misses before a C-G bolt dropped on the right side of my camera's viewfinder (left photo below). I pumped my fists in excitement, only to have the celebration dampened when I realized that the gusting winds had caused some slight blurring of the photo. I tied the camera to the tripod, repositioned the camera, and resumed the photo spree. Less than five minutes later a weak C-G bolt danced across the right side of the frame (right photo below). It wasn't the best shot in the world since a tree partially covered the bolt, but I was content. The DSLR had preformed wonderfully on its first lightning storm. Shortly after this bolt raindrops began pounding on the driveway, ending my chase for the night. Or so I thought.
I checked the radar just before heading to bed--which showed a weak linear storm system to the southwest, moving east. It might produce a brief rain shower, but little else as it would skim to the south. I jumped into bed at 11:30pm and was out in seconds. . . .A crash of thunder jarred me from my sleep. Light flashed through the blinds on the window. I rolled over and checked the cell phone for the time: 3:25am. Another crash kicked me out of bed and, after getting dressed and reassembling the DSLR camera and tripod, raced out to the front porch. The moisture laden air hit me like a brick, but I pressed on and set up the tripod under the eve of the porch. After readjusting the aperture and shutter speed, it was off to the races. A flash blinded me on my second photo (first photo below), but as the photo appeared on the LCD, I realized that the storm was directly overhead and moving east, fast. I moved to the east side of the house and realigned the camera.
After several weak bolts, a pair of strong C-G bolts crashed in front of the camera lens. I managed to capture one of them (middle photo below), but it appeared as a sheet of white on the LCD. The morning chase climaxed with a T-shaped bolt branching out over the eastern skyline (far right photo below). Shortly thereafter, the storm weakened and moved into Wisconsin. I was back inside developing the photos by 4:10am. I was able to use my RAW photo editing tools to recover the overexposed lightning photo.
A review of the radar imagery from the night showed that the southern storm complex lifted slightly north just after midnight, and a isolated storm cell exploded on this northern fringe right over the metro area shortly before 3:00am. This cell tracked swiftly eastward, passing directly over White Bear Township before weakening over western Wisconsin as the sun broke over the eastern horizon.
