CC and CA lightning

[Tim Vasquez]

I've been working on a block of text in my book project about cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-air lightning, and I'm curious what the most prolific display of cloud-to-cloud lightning you've seen is.

For cloud-to-cloud lightning, April 3, 1989 in the Kaufman-Tyler area of Texas was a particularly vivid display of lightning basically travelling up and down the back side of a squall line in massive 30-40 mile bursts. I can't recall seeing anything like it since.

For cloud-to-air lightning I'm going to have to go with May 24, 1998 in north Oklahoma or May 16, 1999 in southwest Oklahoma. Those had some pretty memorable anvil crawlers.

I'm more curious about this and am not necessarily looking for quotes, but if you want to supply one for publication that's fine with me.

Tim

 

[Brian Stertz]

Cloud to air was a nighttime supercell up by Torrington WY before the Brady NE day in May 2000. It was the Dr. Frankenstein night to behold. It had screaming inflow and it seemed as though the lightning shot out from the updraft at low trajectories and never struck ground. Was THE wildest lightning display in my chasing career and in WY of all things.

Cloud to cloud was after Jeff and I had our fun ride in the tornado RL simulation machine up by Edgar NE on 9/22/01. By far the most impressive cc and anvil crawler displays I have ever laid eyes on. This after the original bad ass tornadic supercell went through and then a spinning top LP storm followed on its heels as the surface low moved by.

I can remember some very wicked CG supercells and will hold my tongue on these as this is just a cc/ca thread. All I have to say is that TX Panhandle rocks for CG activity.

 

[Angie Norris]

I think I'd cast a vote for May 22 of this year. I was coming back to Norman after chasing in southern KS, and it was pretty much continuous CC and CA with some distant CGs thrown in for good measure. Lighning was doing things I'd never seen before (like huge crawlers that would branch down into CGs). This was pretty much from the OK/KS border to near Edmond. It was one of the most prolific lightning displays I have EVER seen. Throw in some heavy rain and close to one inch hail...that made for one interesting drive home.

 

[Paul Hadfield]

The Supercell of March 12, 2006 as it passed through IL after dark was an incredible ball of static. Cloud to ground, cloud to air, cloud to everywhere. On a serious note, I think anyone who was on this historic storm would agree.

 

[Jason Boggs]

I think one of my most vivid memories of cloud to cloud lightning was on Oct. 9th 2001 near Cordell, OK. The anvil crawlers were going crazy with that cell.

 

[James Langford]

June 1st 2004. Crazy intense line comes down through Dallas and knocks out power to a lot of the area. Also knocks off a few of the green argon tubes in the big green downtown building. After the main line passes, the most intense anvil crawler and general lightning display that I have ever seen persists till 3 am in the morning. A few pics:

This was the largest one. This is at 20mm on my 10D, and the bolts continued well over my head and behind me.

Probably close to 30 minutes or so later. You can actually see the tubes that are dead on the building. Again at 20 mm.

An hour after the last shot. The storms are getting further away, but are still very bright and intense.

I continued to shoot till around 3 am (5 hours after the light show started), and the lightning was still visible at that point.

James

 

[Chad Cowan]

Oct 18, 2007 had the best display of CA lightning I've seen. I would attribute that to the low-topped anvil-less structure making it viewable. I'm sure CA lightning happens more than we're aware of because we're generally too close (under the anvil) to see it.

Best lightning display ever was August 4th of this year as the tornadic derecho rolled through Chicago and then the 2nd round of storms in its wake. CAPE pushing 9000 j/kg and an EL ~100mb made for an incredible light show, especially with the constant thunder reverberating through downtown. Vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSJiucjn7GA&fmt=18

 

[Heidi Farrar]

For me, nothing comes close to the cell that eventually produced the Evansville, IN F-3 early on November 6th, 2005. The same storm skirted along the MO-AR border late on the 5th before it got there, giving us a perfect view for about an hour. (It was producing a tornado near Thayer, MO at the time my husband and I were watching it.) Continuous cloud-to-cloud, cloud-to-air, anvil crawlers... not so many CGs by comparison, but it was really kind of hard to keep track of CGs with all the other stuff going on in that cell. In all seriousness, it was difficult to watch for any prolonged length of time before having to turn away; this was the only storm in an otherwise pitch-black sky, and the lightning produced a strobe-light effect. I was literally afraid it might cause me to have a seizure -- it is easy to understand why/how bright, flashing lights could bring that sort of thing on after experiencing that storm. I am glad I wasn't driving north at the time or there would have been some problems.

There is an interesting, overwhelming sense of "closeness" to the action that comes with watching a storm like that; it was completely still at our place 30+ miles away, and the scene to the north seemed like the only thing going on anywhere in the world.

Here's a link to the event summary for the Evansville tornado:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/pah/?n=evansvilletornado-nov.6,2005

 

[mike scantlin]

Mine would have to be March 12, 2006. It was our first real forecast-a-target-and-go-there chase. The storm I'm talking about was the Big Cabin, OK/ I-44 storm that occurred after dark. Once the storm had passed, we let it go and stayed in Big Cabin and watched the lightning for over an hour. It was non-stop CA and CC with a few CGs mixed in here and there. Best lightning display I have ever seen.

 

[Jayson Prentice]

My most memorable CA lightning event just occurred this summer, just some general nighttime thunderstorms over northwest Iowa that were enhanced by the LLJ. I think the only reason it was so memorable was beings there were CA strikes that were vertical going above the cloud. A couple examples below:

http://www.iowachaser.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=5838

http://www.iowachaser.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=5840

 

[Danny Neal]

Best lightning display ever was August 4th of this year as the tornadic derecho rolled through Chicago and then the 2nd round of storms in its wake. CAPE pushing 9000 j/kg and an EL ~100mb made for an incredible light show, especially with the constant thunder reverberating through downtown. Vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSJiucjn7GA&fmt=18

I second that! It was a constant strobe light! First came the CG's through the gust front and core. As it blasted away to the east, I remember out there watching anvil crawlers galore. Seemed like you saw at least 5 every 5 minutes for about 45 minutes. Then when that second line moved in from the north, the CG display was incredible. The neighboring town had 12 houses hit by lightning in 2 hours.

I'd say my favorite display of CC CA lightning was on August 2nd, 2006 as severe thunderstorms blew up in an extremely unstable environment and just trained over the city and southern suburbs of Chicago. No lightning photography here, but my time lapse of the storms blowing up and moving in.

Deadly heat surrendered its six day grip on Chicago grudgingly amid waves of thundery downpours from clouds 52,000 ft. tall—towering atmospheric behemoths which generated one of summer’s most spectacular lightning shows to date. Area cloud to ground lightning strokes, which flashed at a rate of 300 every 10 minutes around 7 p.m. had quadrupled to some 1,200 strokes only an hour later, evidence of the stunning rate at which t-storms were multiplying.
Radar screens, completely free of precipitation through late Wednesday afternoon came to life in less than an hour as clusters of thunderstorms overcame the rain-suppressing atmospheric “capâ€￾ (warm air aloft).
Downpours swamped Berwyn with 1.50â€￾ in only 55 minutes while t-storm gusts downed trees and cut power in south suburban Matteson and Frankfort.