Meso Lightning

Lightning forks from the edge of a large mesocyclone structure in this view looking north from County Road D15 (left-to-right in image) in northwest Iowa around 9:35 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011. The road leading off into the horizon at left is County Road N33. The red lights in the background belong to a wind farm. This was our last-hurrah encounter on a storm chase that produced six tornadoes or more--starting around 7:20 PM in the Mapleton area. Strong winds made shooting this exposure of 11 seconds difficult for clarity and sharpness, even on a tripod. It was shot at f/8, 250 ISO and a focal length of 18mm. From here it was a stop in Ames for six ISU meteorology students from the chase, then home to Cedar Rapids for my son Ryan and me--finally arriving there around 1:45 AM Sunday. Ryan drove our chase vehicle (his car) the entire 640-odd miles of the chase.