Waiting for Just the Right Storm

by | May 29, 2020 | Assignments | 0 comments

The wind rustles through the trees, revealing the light undersides of every leaf. It starts sprinkling on the windshield. Puffy white and gray cumulonimbus clouds roll along the horizon. Maybe today will be the day?

I’ve been keeping an eye on the weather for the past week or so, hoping for an opportunity to photograph the current assignment, Lightning Landscapes, that’s proving to be quite challenging. It’s a bonus assignment, not necessarily one that everyone is expected to be able to photograph . . . thunderstorms aren’t predictable, you know. But it’s a 5th week, and there’s no regular Lenspiration assignment running, so it’s a great time to try something a little different.

April and May are normally thunderstorm time in West Virginia. But April passed with very few thunderstorms that I can remember and only one sighting of lightning. There was some heat lightning in early May, and again last night, so with storm clouds passing overhead today I’m hoping that maybe nature’s cycles are just running a little late this year.

Last weekend, camping and “running errands” in Pennsylvania, was an ideal time to be on lightning alert.

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It rained most of the time I was on the road Thursday. It rained pretty hard Friday morning and most of Friday afternoon. It rained Friday night too. But nimbostratus ruled the day.

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On Saturday, I awoke to the beauty of morning sunlight streaming into my hammock, glittering on every wet leaf in the forest. The breaking up of clouds was gorgeous, and I just had to pull over to capture the beautiful landscape en route to my event that morning. But there were no storm clouds.

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Saturday evening was nice and clear, but the threat of rain was still on the forecast. I woke up to the light pitter-patter of misty rain on the rain fly that night, and was greeted with blankets of fog Sunday morning. But once I had descended off the mountain and out of the cloud, I realized there wasn’t much hope of lightning for the rest of the trip.

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I hear the rumble of thunder now, as I sit here in my mobile office at the end of a good week of week. Perhaps today will be the day?

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Whether it is or not, it’s good to be ready for it when it comes:

And as in every other area of life, may the process of seeking a result be enjoyed regardless of what the result happens to be!

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