Modern Vespa

I will admit to a fascination with towering thunderstorm clouds, and starting about this time of year, we see a lot of them developing in western South Dakota, with at least half of them sending ice balls of hail down upon our heads.

This one rolled over us earlier this morning, but just dumped some heavy rain on us, then headed off to hammer someone else downwind, but it was a magnificent cloud nonetheless.

A few good ones from past years around here...

Summer storms...

Great photos of wild sky and cloud formation there JB.

Cool shots. Living in FL for so many years, thunderstorms and lightning are a common occurrence. The ones from early Spring thru late Fall can be particularly fearsome but a beautiful thing to behold especially from a distance especially over the ocean. Thanks for posting these pics.

Some more nice ones from the past several years...

Impressive cloud formations, that are.
Nothing like that ever seen here.

Hey JB, when you say Thunderstorm season, Ice balls and heavy rain is this normal weather pattern for your part of the world, if so how long does the season last or has it evolved over time due to (dare I say it) global warming.

Stunning photos, but I don't think I would like to be stuck in the middle of one of those when it kicked off, ice balls and mega lightning quite dangerous 😉👍

In many places in the US, 3" of rain can be considered a genuine natural disaster. In Central Florida where I live, we have a word for days like that: "Tuesday"

We are also the lightning capital of the US as well. During my career with fire/rescue I used to admonish the tourists who walked around in the rain holding up an umbrella in the middle of a lightning storm.

Love those pictures.

We don't get many thunderstorms along the coast out here and when we do, you see a flash and then a minute or so later you might see another flash. I was in a plane leaving Austin, TX last month and the lightning was so frequent it looked like a time lapse.

I was transferred by my company from Minneapolis to Denver, Colorado. It was particularly dangerous on the golf course during a sudden lightening storm. Your getting ready to swing your 8 iron and it acted like a lightening rod and could kill you. Denver (Mile High City) is at 5280 foot elevation.

First time golfing when a sudden lightening storm developed. The members on my foursome ran like hell to the Country Club Builidng. In Minnesota, we would just put on a lite rain cover and let it blow over. I did get a kick out of watching these Denver golfers running like heck - drop you clubs fool and come on.

Bob Copeland
My wife thought the air was to thin and not healthy for our infant children. She would joke that, not getting enough oxygen, everyone's IQ was down 10 points.
I do not intend to disparage the good folks from Colorado, but I did seem to get smarter after moving back to Minnesota.

If you are caught on a golf course during a storm and are afraid of lightning, hold up a 1-iron. Not even God can hit a 1-iron.

--Lee Trevino

Over a 30 year career in fire/rescue in Florida I responded too many times to lightning strikes on a golf course. Do you know where I never had to deal with someone struck by lightning? In a pool.

That's right! Golf course were bad; an open beach or a large pool deck were bad; the lifeguard tower, high-dive or the top of the water slide were problematic. But I never had a person struck while swimming in pool. Based on my experience, when the lightning starts the lifeguard should blow his/her whistle and yell: "Lightning Alert! Everyone in the pool!"

Golfers, however, are on their own...

What I see in your movie is frequent in cloud or cloud to cloud lightning.
These lightnings are innocent. It is cloud to earth lightnings you have to be aware of.
A typical thunderstorm over here is a lot of in cloud or cloud to cloud lightnings with now and then a lightning cloud to earth.

That is an interesting observation. We get the advice here when lightning starts to leave the pool immediately and get in house.

Some excellent pics. They give a great sense of the scale of those clouds.

It's patchy fog season here. Not quite as dramatic.