The Storm of the Summer
Lightning knocks out power on Mt. Washington
I have been chasing storms all over Western Pennsylvania for the entire year trying to get the type of lightning photos I could get back in Arizona. Unfortunately, Western Pennsylvania just doesn’t get those type of high-based, low precipitation monsoonal thunderstorms that they get in the arid Southwest.
An example of a high-based, monsoonal thunderstorm in Arizona, taken by the incredibly talented Mike Oblinski. Please check out his storm photography, it is amazing!
Instead, we get low-based, high precipitation, linear type storms, which, while they still have a lot of lightning, mostly keep it hidden within the low cloud base and the large volume of rain. Combine that with the hills and forests of Pennsylvania, and it is exceedingly difficult to put yourself in a position to take dramatic lightning photos in Pittsburgh.
I didn’t expect Thursday evening to be any different than any of the other busts I’ve had recently trying to catch lightning after reading the weather reports, but with summer waning, I knew that I would not have many chances left this year to try. The storms had already fired north of my apartment as I shut down my work laptop, so I hastily grabbed my camera gear and headed to Adams Township Park to see what was going on. The cells to the north had exploded, and the lightning was continuous (and a little nerve-wracking if I’m being honest, as I really didn’t want to be struck by lightning) so I opted to setup for a timelapse to capture the dramatic clouds (which also gave me the opportunity to walk off the hill and sit on a bench that I felt was much less likely to attract a bolt out of the blue).
My 90D, decked out in it’s raincoat, snapping a photo every second as the cell approaches my position
Fortunately, we didn’t get rained on as the storm passed to the North, and I was able to reposition the camera several times to get some interesting footage of the clouds and the powerful updrafts (see below in the unedited video):
The raw timelapse sequences from Adams Township Park
While this cell was passing I was keeping an eye on RadarScope and observing the cell to the South that was approaching Pittsburgh, and it dawned on me that I had the opportunity to position myself in a place to capture some lightning with the city as a backdrop. I decided to pack up and hit the road. As I walking to my car, the outflow from the storm hit, and I looked behind me to see a large branch had fallen on the bench where I was sitting just a moment ago:
Had I stayed behind another couple minutes, my day would have been abruptly cut short.
I quickly ran down to Lawrenceville to pick up some company and we headed to the city. After some deliberation, I decided that the West End Overlook would be the shot of the evening as the storm headed East over the city, and that we’d have a good chance to capture some lightning with Pittsburgh as a backdrop. And man…did that gamble ever pay off!
Lightning crawls up the base of the storm as the South Side is struck repeatedly in this 15-second exposure.
The clouds are dramatically backlit as lightning branches out of the storm directly overhead Pittsburgh.
You can see a leader coming up off the BNY building in Pittsburgh here…that close to catching a lightning bolt striking a building! Maybe next time.
After I set my shot, I enabled the 90D’s built-in intervalometer and kept myself busy by making sure the lens didn’t end up with too much rain on it. In the end, I was able to create one of my favorite timelapses to-date using all the images shot:
I haven’t seen a storm like this in Pittsburgh for several years. We rarely get photogenic weather events, so this was such a pleasant way to wrap up the summer. I’ve been chasing these shots all year since I got back into the hobby. With how the end of summer goes in Western Pennsylvania, this might have been the last chance all year to get photos like these, and I’m so happy with how they turned out!
