Midnight Storms: Jackson, Ohio and Teays Valley, West Virginia - July 15, 2003 - 10:30PM - 12:30AM

Editor/Photographer

EXPEDITION VIDEO: Sky-filling lightning over Teays Valley

When you're a Christian with a web site, you'll often find yourself under the gun from opponents of the faith. Many times, I get emails asking for hard evidence that God exists, that the Bible is true and that Jesus is the only way to be saved. I'm going to pass over the scientific debates and discussions, and get right to the main reason I know Christ is real. So here's the evidence.

After a difficult season of photographing storms in Tornado Alley, storms back home in the Mountain State turn out to be the shows of the year. I'm thankful to the Lord for allowing me to be here to witness it and capture it on film.

Late night thunderstorms were forecast to move into the Mountain State on Tuesday night, July 15. I started west on Route 35 at 9:00PM after watching a line of storms on radar began to intensify as it moved east-southeast over Cincinnati, Ohio. I expected the storms to slowly weaken as they pushed east (as they usually do), so I was hoping to meet them in the Jackson/Chillicothe, Ohio area and maybe get a few shots before they died completely.

However, despite conditions that pointed to the storms losing their punch, the lightning continued at a good rate as I met the line just east of Jackson, Ohio around 10:00PM. I set up the cameras for a few minutes in eastern Jackson County, Ohio before heading back toward home. The show continued for most of the night as I followed the storms back east, with lightning still visible after 3:00AM in Putnam County, WV. Some of the most photogenically cooperative lightning was in Teays Valley, where a small cell put on a great show of 'anvil crawler' lightning discharges for both of the cameras until about 1:00AM.

Frames from Video: 'Anvil Crawler' lightning discharges over Putnam County, WV and Jackson County, OH: