Storms, Lightning, and Generally
Funky Cloud Formations
As you probably know, New Mexico doesn't get much rain; after all, most of the state is arid or semi-arid.  I think Socorro gets around 9 inches annually, and out at the VLA it's somewhere around 11 or 12 inches annually.  Most of our precipitation for the entire year falls between the end of July and the beginning of September during the monsoon season, so it's pretty much the only time anything is ever green.  It's also just about the only time you're going to see much in the way of clouds-we've got over 300 sunny days a year.  When we DO get storms though, they can throw down some serious lightning.  Now that I've got a schweet camera, I'm really getting into the whole storm/lightning photography bit.  Here's some of the results so far:
 

A big anvil-head thunderstorm-a cumulonimbus cloud to you Willard Scott fans.
 

It was pretty amazing to see just how fast this storm built up.
 

The same storm as to the left, about 20 minutes later.
 

This is a rare sight in New Mexico-patches of green vegetation. ;-) 
 

Unfortunately I didn't have my tripod with me for this storm.  This was potentially the best shot, but turned out to be the worst because of the bad camera shake.

DOH!!!  A nice bolt with a leader just outta frame behind the antenna barn.
 

Another bolt just outta frame on the right.  Very cool illumination of the column of rain though.
 

A distant bolt with moderate camera shake.  :-(
 

Another distant bolt, but with less camera shake.
 

A much closer bolt, but still some camera shake.
 

Definitely the best shot I got from this particular storm.  Very little camera shake and a couple nice, close bolts.
 

A different storm, but still some nice distant strikes.

 

The pics below were taken earlier in the year, and later in the day (between 10 and 11 pm).  Again, I didn't have my tripod with me, so I had to make due to with resting the camera on the railing.

This may look like daylight, but it's actually a very close bolt that hit right behind me and lit everything up.
Here's the same scene about 1 minute later-notice the clouds "next" to the antenna still look the same.
Interesting silhouettes of the clouds and antenna.

Those pesky lightning bolts just never wanna come down in the *middle* of a frame.  ;-)
Finally!  I got one to cooperate.
Now they're hiding.

Glowing columns of rain-always very cool.
Awesome!  Some leaders and bolts both.
A decent trio of bolts.

 
All images copyright © Greg Patterson; all rights reserved, yadda, yadda                                                                                                                                              Last Modified: October 22, 2002