Santa Fe, NM Lightning

[John Farley]

I was fortunate to observe and photograph a spectacular lightning display as a monsoon storm approached Santa Fe the evening of August 5:

More pictures here:

http://www.johnefarley.com/lightning080507.htm

 

[Rebecca Robinson]

Awesome Photos. While I was living In Arizona, I never knew that the Monsoons got that far into New Mexico.

 

[Brian Stertz]

Cool shot John. My uncle has a place up north of town by the opera. Its really cool to watch those storms swell up and the high based lightning zap all around. I don't know if it's true or not but the park ranger out at the Valles Caldera said that their park is one of the most electrically active parts of NM. Did you ever hear of that one John?

 

[Susan Strom]

Gorgeous!!!!

 

[John Farley]

Thanks for the comments, everyone. The monsoon indeed does get this far up into NM, and even farther north, up into Colorado and Utah as well. Dewpoints in parts of NM have been over 60 recently, and close to that here in Santa Fe. Other times of year, they are much lower.

In regard to the Valles Caldera question, that makes sense to me. Nearly every day the storms over the Jemez Mountains are the first to form, and last year when fishing in the Caldera we were warned about lightning and that often, the people fishing there are ordered out early (there is a complicated procedure with strict time limits for fishing there, but they are often further restricted due to lightning.)

Last May, while on the way up to fish a bit west of the Caldera, I encountered a thunderstorm that produced mixed rain and snow, even though the temperature in Los Alamos before the storm was around 70. There are pics on my Web page if you are interested. There certainly were lots of CGs there that day.

 

[Eric Flescher]

John
Very nice . What camera, exposure, asa etc

 

[Jim Hunt]

John
Very nice . What camera, exposure, asa etc

Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL
Image Date: 1980:01:01 00:12:25
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 115.0mm
CCD Width: 7.97mm
Exposure Time: 1.000 s
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO equiv: 100
White Balance: Auto
Exposure Mode: Manual

 

[John Farley]

Well, thanks, Jim, you beat me to it. Actually, you taught me something - I wasn't sure if you could pull the data off the file once it is re-sized for the Web, but obviously you can.

Most of the pictures were taken using a Canon 70-300 mm IS zoom lens. At various times, I had the zoom between 70 and about 130 or 140. Using the bulb setting with the camera on a tripod, I held the button down for about 15-20 seconds hoping for a bolt. As with this picture, sometimes I got lucky and got one just a second or two after I started. Of course I had lots with nothing, but with the lightning as frequent as it was, the success ratio for catching a bolt was better than usual. I got about 40 shots with lightning in them, far beyond what I usually manage.

 

[John Olexa]

Awesome shot John!!! Well done!