[Wrao]

I did

[Souflay123]

where was it located?

[Moogs]

Damn. That looks like the alien lighting bolts from War of the Worlds.

I caught several bolts on time-elapsed exposures about a month ago when we had a big storm roll through. Actually shot them out the window of my house. Just turned off the lights, closed the door and wedged the camera and tripod so it balanced just in front of the glass plane... no reflections or anything. Was pretty fun....

[Wrao]

Originally Posted by Souflay123 where was it located?

That picture was taken in the malibu canyons, which was the best vantage point we could find. But the storm took place off the coast between Palos Verdes and Catalina, but apparently spread all the way to Santa Barbara, between the hours of 11 PM and 3 AM

[Souflay123]

That is crazy, I saw and heard nothing, We all went and watched The Mirrors at 12:05 AM. I have seen some uber crazy storms up in big bear. But lightning like that is MO crazy

[Wrao]

Yeah, Apparently there were over 900 strikes.

[tomoe]

The LA Times has a pretty cool video showing some of the lightning strikes.

[Wrao]

http://vimeo.com/1534901

Here's some video footage that we shot, it's in HD.

[NosferaDrew]

Originally Posted by Wrao http://vimeo.com/1534901 Here's some video footage that we shot, it's in HD.

Man, that's some great footage!

First of all, it was quite unusual for it to rain at all here in Southern California, but to have thunder and lightning - pretty rare and awesome to watch.

Second, I see the video was shot at Decker and Mulholland.
Decker Canyon Road is my favorite road to drive my little coupe on:


I love that road and I'm up in the hills above Malibu almost every weekend driving.

Thanks for posting the video, Wrao.

[Wrao]

Yeah, They are some of my favorite roads to drive on in all of California. Great hiking trails out there as well. We were Originally going to go to a different vista to try and get a glimpse at the coast, but we didn't know how long the storm would last, so we figured just set up and take whatever footage we could grab. Unfortunately, strikes were happening all around us, so it was difficult to set the Camera up in any one location to maximize the footage. Still got some good ones though.

I have to say though, I have seen a few lightning storms in my day. This one was by far the most intense to witness. Not only were there some of the brightest and most brilliant lightning bolts I have ever seen, but they were appearing in all shapes and configurations, including some that seemed to disperse into the sky but never touch the ground. Very cool stuff.

[ShadowOfGed]

Interesting. I could have sworn I heard thunder up here (San Jose) last night, but only once. Nothing like a 900-strike lightning storm, but it makes me wonder if I did legitimately hear a strike off in the distance.

(By the way, as scary as they can be sometimes, thunderstorms will be one of the rarities I miss from the east coast.)