Paint Creek Lightning Standard, WV - August 3, 2000
At around 6:00pm on Thursday, rapidly growing thunderstorms began forming around the state for the 7th day in a row. This sequence of photos shows the progression of one storm north of Charleston during a 5-minute time frame. The cloud pushed skyward fast, with pileus caps visible several times. The last photo below shows the storm beginning to 'anvil out' in a mushroom-shaped cloud as it hits the ceiling. These photos were taken 1 to 2 minutes apart:
After dark, storms continued to develop and move northeast. At 9:00pm, I decided to try and intercept a very active cluster of cells to the south. I drove east on I-64 and caught up with the lightning at Cabin Creek. At Chelyan, a bolt struck the mountainside 1/2 mile in front of me- immediately followed by an orange glow on the mountain that persisted for 3 seconds afterward, possibly from a tree taking the hit. I finally got ahead of the storms at Paint Creek. I set up the cameras (video and 35mm) facing northeast under I-64, near the old WV Turnpike Memorial Tunnel at Standard.
Even though it cost me $2.50 in tolls to make this chase, these shots made the drive worth it. Storms continued across the area the rest of the night- lightning was still flashing in the eastern sky at dawn.
My work is, at this very moment you are reading this, generating the most income it ever has in my career. Yet, I was forced to shut down the professional side of my successul operation, against my will, due to one cause alone: 95% of that revenue is being stolen by piracy and copyright infringement. I've lost more than $1 million to copyright infringement in the last 15 years, and it's finally brought an end to my professional storm chasing operation. Do not be misled by the lies of infringers, anti-copyright activists and organized piracy cartels. This page is a detailed, evidenced account of my battle I had to undertake to just barely stay in business, and eventually could not overcome. It's a problem faced by all of my colleagues and most other creators in the field.
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From Dan: Please Read
To my regular readers, I offer my apologies for this heavy-handed notice. Unfortunately it has become necessary, so please bear with me!
Please don't copy/upload this site's content to social media or other web sites. Those copies have been a critical problem for me, seriously harming this site and my photography/storm chasing operation by diverting traffic, viewers, engagement and income. "Credit" and "exposure" does not benefit this site or my operation, rather they threaten my ability to cover my operating expenses. Please read my full explanation for this notice here.
Before continuing, check each box to agree to and acknowledge these two statements:
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This chase was a routine television assignment in my role as a cameraman. As a result, many of these don't have a dedicated chase log.
This chase was only recorded in my mileage reports, no detailed log was written for it.
