Celestial Beauty at Dawn

[Stephen Levine]

All that wild and dramatic weather from early this week barely touched our area here in the Dallas Metro region.
The hopes and childlike excitement that I felt in anticipation of possibly something great to watch or chase had me waking up every two hours late Mon night-Tues morning and monitoring the sky and weather conditions.
Beginning about 5 a.m., touches of sheet lighting was all "she wrote".
About 6am, I watched a storm pass about 25 miles S. of my locale with frequent spectacular positive bolts.
Then at dawn, the receeding thunderheads revealed themselves with tremendous beauty, with lightning in them and Venus rising up over them.
If you are interested in a poetic description of this event, feel free to check out my website www.birthingyourdream.com
Due to it being a work day, I so wanted to but couldn't chase those still-developing storms into E. Texas. I felt like a dog yanking on a leash. It took awhile for me to get out of my head the frustration of seeing these beautiful and still developing storms within intercept distance yet not appropriate to merge with.
However, as morning went on and I reflected on the beauty that I did see, my mood lightened. It is this beauty of storms from the distance that I describe in the latest web post.

 

[Susan Strom]

Then at dawn, the receeding thunderheads revealed themselves with tremendous beauty, with lightning in them and Venus rising up over them.

Good grief, that must have been a sight.

Rarely do I see storms at dawn. Mostly, they build all day and unleash all night.

 

[Stephen Levine]

Good grief, that must have been a sight.

Rarely do I see storms at dawn. Mostly, they build all day and unleash all night.

It was a spectacular sight. They looked like vast celestial mountains of shadow against the faint yet brightening blue sky.

 

[Martin Kucera]

Great work Stephen.
Your thread reminded me of an event down here in the Florida Keys in November 2007. I usually spend most nights out photographing lightning over the ocean till dawn during summer months. This night was during dry season so I welcomed the lightning show on the horizon. The sky was amazingly clear with bright stars everywhere (due to departing cold front). Planet Venus was rising in the eastern sky... the moon was so bright the color of the ocean was actually green.
Just thought to share a photo from that night with you and folks here.
I always want to keep chasing till morning hours while in the Alley but never manage to (need for sleep, long driving hours, etc..). Some of the most amazing things happen just before sunrise, the dawn hours are always the most magic time here in the Keys as well, especially for lightning.

Time lapse of this event can be seen here : www.floridalightning.com/Venus_Lightning_in_the_Florida_Keys.wmv

 

[Stephen Levine]

Thank you for sharing that stunning photo, Martin. When I see distant thundermountains and lightning like this, I feel a yearning in my heart to merge with it.
It's an actual physical sensation.
Also love your website; especially the clear air fireworks over the water. With it being a humid climate, it fascinates me that you could catch such vivid cloud-air-ground displays.