Farm Storm HDR

Spectacular lightning thunderstorm striking above the BIG Red Barn at Lohr-McIntosh Farm and Agricultural Heritage Center on open space in Longmont Colorado, Boulder County. Lightning is not only spectacular, it’s very very dangerous. Fact: Around 2,000 people are killed worldwide by lightning strikes each year. Hundreds more survive a strikes but suffer from a variety of lasting symptoms, including memory loss, dizziness, weakness, numbness, and other life-altering ailments. That explains everything for me. When thunder rolls and everyone should run inside… storm chasers are out the door. Active storm aas you can see in a 4 sec exposure. This is one shot processing in HDR. Settings on this shot. ISO 100 – f8 – 4 sec – 70mm – Prints available online – Farm Storm HDR

Cloud-to-cloud lightning discharges may occur between areas of cloud without contacting the ground. When it occurs between two separate clouds, it is known as inter-cloud lightning and when it occurs between areas of differing electric potential within a single cloud, it is known as intra-cloud lightning. Intra-cloud lightning is the most frequently occurring type of thunderstorm.

These are most common between the upper anvil portion and lower reaches of a given thunderstorm. This lightning can sometimes be observed at great distances at night as so-called “heat lightning”. In such instances, the observer may see only a flash of light without hearing any thunder. The “heat” portion of the term is a folk association between locally experienced warmth and the distant lightning flashes.