June 25 - 27 Storms

Much like the flooding event of last week to affect portions of SW IL, storms fired along a warm front stretching from WC into SE IL on Saturday evening. A series of discreet cells went up initially with one in particular to earn severe warning in Sangamon County near Springfield. I was out doing errands and dropped S for an intercept at Assumption though on arrival it had lost it's warning. Hoping for lightning to fire in frame with structure, I had no luck but was able to get enough material for a brief time lapse series found on THIS video link. Upon passage, storms exploded and continuous lightning akin to a strobe could be seen in all directions. Heavy rain with numerous flash flood warnings would be the story for the rest of the night.













Sunday night into Monday morning, a similar setup took place with two MCS's (mesoscale convective systems) canvassing the region. The first to drop through around midnight although small in scale was mighty in the sense that it generated intense cloud to ground lightning once the initial squall line went overhead. The second MCS to track along I-72 was responsible for producing wind damage in W IL and had equally intense lightning. My location took a direct hit on the rooftop and as the discharge traveled instantly through the internal wiring, a loud *SNAP* like a firecracker was emitted from a plug near to where I was sitting. I doubt that there was a personal danger since it was guiding along an electrical pathway but thankfully none of my equipment was plugged in at the time. I had a camera set up for both rounds of storms and have assembled images into a DSLR time lapse series seen HERE. I also shot video on my iPhone of the prolific lightning and then extracted audio into a 2:00 minute audio clip that you are welcome to rip below.

June 27, 2011 - Early Morning Lightning (soundcloud.com)

First Round












Second Round