The Big Storm On The Night Of August 22nd Over The Eastern Plains Of Colorado (& Western Plains Of Kansas)

   Driving northbound along a two lane county road somewhere near the Colorado / Kansas border last Saturday night, and in the distance looking west I could see a thunderstorm actively forming on the far horizon.

   As the storm was to the west and I was driving north, I decided to pull over and watch the storm as it rolled across the prairie -  it looked like it was going to be fairly big and powerful, and it might be worth trying to get a few lightning pics.

   Bolts of lighting shot from the heavy, low-lying clouds that hung over the Prairie as I got out of the car to find a good spot to take pics with my cell phone camera. It was still hot - the temp had hit the mid '80's in the afternoon, and it was still in the mid '70's when I pulled over.

   As I was primarily interested in the electrical activity of the storm and how the lightning bolts lit up the clouds (and the pitch black Kansas night) I really didn't notice anything else about the storm.

   The low rumble of thunder could be heard in the distance, and by my calculations (...one Mississippi, two Mississippi...all the way up to 70 Mississippi's, then divide by 5...) I was at least 15 miles from the storm.

     It wasn't raining  where I was parked, and the wind was very mild, so I did not give any thought to being caught in a downpour or anything like it. I just stood outside the car and took picture after picture, hoping to catch lightning.

   Mostly I only saw and got pictures of the flashes - all the bolts seemed to be either behind, above, or in the storm itself.

   There were a few single bolts every few minutes though, and I did get a few shots of those, which I discovered after I got back in the car to review the shots I had taken.

   I also discovered something else in the pictures though, something a lot less visually appealing, at least to me.