Predawn lightning in southern Illinois - August 23

By DAN ROBINSON Editor/Photographer

Last Thursday night, I had been on watch for storms shown by models to develop in the area during the overnight hours. The models were correct, but everything stayed to the north and east of St. Louis. Finally a persistent cell dropped south to within 30 miles of home, and I made the brief trip east to just past Carlyle to get in front of it near the town of Shattuc, Illinois. Wanting to try something different, I shot wide over the soybean fields with 3 to 4 minute exposures to allow the moonlight to burn in the clouds and the foureground as the storm approached. This was the best of the attempts:

As the storm drew within 2 miles, it mustered one more cloud-to-ground strike before slowly diminishing into increasingly less frequent intracloud flashes.