Distant Summer Lightning

Posted on by Ian C.

We knew that our new home was nicely located with a view over the wetlands, but we didn’t realize just how good our weather view would be – it turns out that living in (flat) Florida with the nearest trees a few hundred yards away gives us great views of both sunsets (examples: June, February) as well as the regular summer thunder and lightning – but it’s much harder to record lightning than sunsets!

Last night was spectacular; a storm maybe 20 miles west of us struck lightning both cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground for at least an hour; we were too far to hear thunder except occasional deep rumbles, but we had a great view of lightning. This 1/2 minute clip is extracted from only 3 minutes of video I recorded:

Head to YouTube to watch in higher (full screen) resolution.

Viewing clouds at the ocean?!

Posted on by Ian C.

As the sun set tonight, we had fabulous distant cloud views – one cloud bank was lit by the sunset further to the west, while a second cloud bank towered into the sky; I assume I’m not the only person that thinks “face in the cloud”:

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The amazing thing is that it seems these cloud formations were out over the Gulf, west of Florida – after the sun had set we saw regular lightning in the distance at the same position as the cloud “tower”, and Accuweather pinpointed the nearest lightning at 75 miles away! In the same direction, so I think it’s correct – you can see a long way in (flat) Florida!

Sunset after the storm

Posted on by Ian C.

Summer in Florida experiences basically daily afternoon or evening storms, as the wet air rolls in from the Gulf of Mexico to the west, and the Atlantic to the east, then meets in the center. Living now in about the center of the tall thin state means the meeting and subsequent storms surround us a bit west, a bit east, or over us.
Today as the storm cleared, I took a sunset picture:

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