| The following day I drove to the Lower Keys expecting the main squall coming from the west. I wanted to be in Key West for the occasion. This time unfortunately though, things did not happen that way. Upon crossing the Seven Mile Bridge the storms rolling in from the Gulf weakened significantly. Just before sunset I spotted a lone couple of storm towers to my south, over the waters of Florida Straits. These were about sixty miles away. To my bitter surprise, a line of thunderstorm with vivid lightning flashes also erupted just off of the Upper Keys, pretty much right next to my house. Yeah, that would be the worst possible scenario you ever want to go through while chasing storms. By now it was dark out, storms to my west weakened completely so I decided to go back to the Upper Keys and try to make something out of the storms there. I knew most of the show would be over by the time I got there. Luckily there was another impulse later in the evening that provided for some more lightning activity although not as intense as earlier. Of a particular interest to me was a single very well electrified cell about thirty miles to my south that went up at about 2am. I used the 200mm lens to zoom all the way into the core of the thunderstorms updraft. Obtaining a perfectly correct focus and exposure was a challenge. Nevertheless I managed to capture a great close up full resolution detail of a vivid positive lightning discharge associated with this thunderstorm. I hope that for the rest of the season I will be able to capture even more detailed shots like this one. My main focus for the upcoming wet season here in south Florida will be capturing of close up detailed shots like this one, especially focusing on the region where these powerful bolts exit the thunderstorm. |
| Thunderstorm towers over distant waters of the Florida Straits. Image shot from the southern end of Sugarloaf Key. |
| Lightning bolt over the Upper Keys. This storm was about sixty miles away. Image shot from the Lower Keys during sunset. |
| Thunderstorms that persisted until the late morning hours and saved the day. The dark cell growing in the foreground is going to be the one I zoom in a bit later, as soon as it becomes lightning active. These storms lasted for hours and eventually moved away toward Cuban coast and Bahamas. |
| Proper focus and exposure was quite a challenge here. It is much easier done with a digital SLR these days. This is the main updraft tower flashing about every few seconds. It is great to see the rain falling inside of the thunderstorm and the sharp, crispy outlines of the main updraft tower... |
| Some nights your patience really pays off as was the case with this shot. It is a close up full frame photo with a positively charged bolt exiting the thunderstorm. A nice detail and proper exposure. I hope more like this and even more spectacular ones coming up my way in near future. The rainy season is almost here... |
| Text & Images (c) 2007 FloridaLightning.com |
| Lightning Storms of March 15th & 16th, 2007 BY MARTIN KUCERA (c) 2007 - FloridaLightning.com |