Here's another clip from my Arizona workshop, this time Super Slow Mo lightning:

Monsoon. Arizona thunderstorms shot in Super Slow Mo with the FS700 - YouTube

Fantastic. Especially the dramatic night sequence. Living here in California, I really miss those dramatic storms. Thanks for sharing.

Absolutely fascinating - seeing the 'exploration' before the main strike, then how routed the main strike becomes (I presume that's what we're seeing when it takes quite some time to decay). Reminds me of watching traces of internet pings, except this is now a billion or so volts at 200k Amps. Kinda humbling.

I'm very glad someone has the guts to take something tall and expensive on 3 metal legs and then stand next to it into theses storms to render the unseeable as beautiful.

It does get interesting as the flash and bang gets closer together. I think the closest one this trip was a clear air bolt that came down from the anvil cloud overhead and struck about 400m away. The majority of the lightning occurs in the rain shafts, so as long as we stay out of the rain it's not too risky.

Alister,
Fascinating stuff!
However your last post reminded me of what Lee Trevino the professional golfer said after he was stuck by lighting and not anywhere near a rain shaft. As he stood on the T to strike the ball holding a 2 iron in his hand, he was stuck by a bolt of lighting and knocked to the ground. When he was able to stand up and speak he said, "See, even God can't hit a 2 iron"
Be careful out ther my friend.