Freak Electrical Storm, New Orleans
20 Sep
I shot this last night on the West Bank (which is actually South of the city, but whatever). This storm rolled in literally without warning… The weather went from 70 degrees and humid, partly cloudy, to pounding rain in under 15 minutes. At first, I threw my coat over the camera to protect it from what was initially light drizzle so I could at least attempt one shot of the lightning, but within a few minutes it was pouring so hard I frantically packed up and dashed for the safety of the car, which was a quarter-mile trek, over a levy and partially through bayou. By the time I got back to the car I was completely drenched (equipment was fine), and when I got back to the French Quarter, the storm had completely cleared and you could see the stars in the sky.
I didn’t realize it was striking downtown New Orleans until I got back and looked at it on the computer. Counting down the seconds from the flash is apparently not an accurate measure of distance.
Clouds glowing from lightning:
The bolt hitting the Central Business District:
The above photo cropped and zoomed in a bit:
