[Moontanman]

Originally Posted by Turtle

Dateline Vancouver USA 50ºF on my porch right now, cloudy & raining.

Coldest 'June-uary' in nearly 10 yrs | Local News | kgw.com | News for Oregon and SW Washington

Dateline Wilmington, NC 100F+ for the last three days, hottest June on record since record keeping began. We got a break today, it was only 98F......

[Turtle]

We went from chilly to heat wave last week. It hit 102 F on my porch Saturday. Here's some lightning I caught on Sunday evening about 9pm. Nothing closer than about 4 miles. Two men were struck South of me in Oregon, and the weather service is working to confirm a tornado as well over there.
Forecast calls for mid-90s, possible thunderstorms - Breaking News Updates from Portland and Oregon - The Oregonian - OregonLive.com





I have a time-lapse of some ominous black clouds after the lightning, and in it you see some fireworks the neighbors shoot up. Some peoples' kids! What a nice conductive path that rocket exhaust makes. BRB with video as soon as it finishes processing.

Edit: it's still wet so be careful. >>

YouTube - Black Storm & Fireworks

[DougF]

you caught some nice stills of that lightning Turtle, good job.

We were in a dry spell here that lasted all year
(seriously I've only had 1" of rain sense January)
but two weeks ago the afternoon rains have returned and things are back to normal again.
(I can't believe how green my grass looks now, It's growing like a weed,)
(no not that one, that one is a weed)

Monthly Weather Forecast for Leesburg, FL (34749) - weather.com
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.
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[Turtle]

Originally Posted by DougF

you caught some nice stills of that lightning Turtle, good job.

Danke! I have the technique down to a science.

Originally Posted by Dougamon

(I can't believe how green my grass looks now, It's growing like a weed,)
(no not that one, that one is a weed)

Monthly Weather Forecast for Leesburg, FL (34749) - weather.com

In spite of the recent thunderstorms, I received very little rain. June here is very dry, and I had to water my lawn this week. We still have cloudiness today from a system offshore pushing in, but we also have very hazy skies from the smoke coming up from the lightning-sparked California fires.

Originally Posted by SCOTT LINDLAW

What is extraordinary this year is the number of fires burning at the same time, Kirchner said. The weekend of June 21 saw some 1,200 fires burning — a figure Forest Service officials said appeared to be an all-time record in California.
...
Even a modest rain storm — highly unusual in July — would do little to diminish the likelihood of a long, tough fire season, Heil said.

"Unless it rains, and we get some really good rainfall, you can pretty much expect it to be here right through October," he said. ...

California firefighters have to pick their battles | Newsweek News | Newsweek.com

[modest]

Originally Posted by Turtle

Danke! I have the technique down to a science.

Do tell because I've tried before. Ended up with a few dozen shots of black sky and one with half a bolt of lightning. My digital may be too slow though

~modest

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by modestino

Do tell because I've tried before. Ended up with a few dozen shots of black sky and one with half a bolt of lightning. My digital may be too slow though

~modest

I use a video camera mounted on a tripod, and then review it frame by frame for strikes which I then save as stills. The resolution is about 1/3 of my camera's still mode, but my still mode does not have the necessary features to get lightning.

Back in my film TLR & SLR days, I got lighning shots at night by using slow film, a small aperature, and locking the shutter open on the 'B' setting. (pop quiz! what does that 'B' stand for? ) I would then take frame exposures of 1 minute to several minutes, close the shutter, advance the film, and open the shutter again. When a strike occured, I closed the shutter & advanced the film. With a 36 exposure roll, I could stretch my session time to a couple of hours per roll. Chaos favors the prepared imagination.

[modest]

Originally Posted by Turtle

I use a video camera mounted on a tripod, and then review it frame by frame for strikes which I then save as stills. The resolution is about 1/3 of my camera's still mode, but my still mode does not have the necessary features to get lightning.

Good call. I think my camera now has an option for a quick succession of shots as well as video. When I did this a few years ago my camera had neither option.

Originally Posted by Turtle

Back in my film TLR & SLR days, I got lighning shots at night by using slow film, a small aperature, and locking the shutter open on the 'B' setting. (pop quiz! what does that 'B' stand for? ) I would then take frame exposures of 1 minute to several minutes, close the shutter, advance the film, and open the shutter again. When a strike occured, I closed the shutter & advanced the film. With a 36 exposure roll, I could stretch my session time to a couple of hours per roll. Chaos favors the prepared imagination.

Very clever thinking.

What does b stand for? I'm clueless. Isn't that the setting where you hold the button down? Is it button?

~modest

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by modest

What does b stand for? I'm clueless. Isn't that the setting where you hold the button down? Is it button?

~modest

Yes that's the setting. The 'B' is for bulb, as in the old-style rubber pneumatic squeeze bulbs use to trip camera shutters. As long as the 'button' is depressed, the shutter remains open. I used a cable release which had a locking set-screw to hold the shutter open without having to stand there holding the button. The cable release also isolates the camera from vibrations from the phtographer touching it.

Is this an option on today's digital SLR or other cameras? Say whiskey!

[Turtle]

Just went out to check the weather & saw a splendid blood-red Sun. By the time I returned with my camera it had disappeared in the clouds.

No matter. I was out because we have the chance of thunderstorms tonight & there is nothing so telling of weather as its smell. The last storms have fires burning in Oregon & Washington now.

Originally Posted by By Pete Springer

More than 3000 lightning strikes were recorded in Oregon and Washington Monday night.

That's on the heels of another lightning storm Sunday night that started a number of small fires mostly east of the Cascades.

Jeri Mills is with the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center. She says fire managers are using maps of lightning strikes, aerial reconnaissance, and ground crews to find fires before they get big.
...

http://news.opb.org/article/2484-ano...nd-washington/

My radio & TV simultaneously crackled at most of those 3,000 strikkkkkkkkes. Off to set up the camera.

[Turtle]

So far so good. I have 2 or 3 nice lightning strikes recorded, far off to the East on the other side of the Cascades. I have the camera feeding to the TV, and I may have also just caught a meteor a bit ago. The weather forecast is for thunderstorm activity to increase yet tonight, so it's gonna be a long one.