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Chasing lightning across the Colorado Plateau
  • No matter how safe a photographer tries to be while photographing lightning, there is an element of danger to the endeavor. Even when you give a thunderstorm a wide berth, one of the most dangerous possibilities (though rare) is positive lightning - a bolt that reaches out from the positively charged top of a cloud to a negatively charged spot on the landscape, usually outside the storm's perimeter in an area you feel safe...But, this was not one of those moments... Sometimes, you are just too darn close! When you can see this kind of detail on the tendrils of a lightning strike, that just might be too close.

  • 2010 was a very stormy monsoon season for the Colorado Plateau. No matter which direction I travel I come across big angry skies full of storms, often two or three or four visible at any one time. Driving along Highway 163 in southeastern Utah just west of Bluff, a dark underbellied storm was marching across the landscape toward the road from the south. A wall of rain fell below it as lightning strike after lightning strike clawed down to ground; it was as if each strike was propelling the storm forward towards me.

  • On the Colorado Plateau, hot days can mean stormy nights; on this late August day the temperatures were high and by early evening a storm began to boil out open sky above the Paria Plateau. Hours later this storm would be come quite the conflagration - some say the biggest electrical storm in the area in 47 years - but, early in its development, it began spitting lightning as the sunset lit the sky and the rain curtain danced like fire in the sky.

  • On the Colorado Plateau, hot days can mean stormy nights; on this late August day the temperatures were high and by early evening a storm began to boil out of open sky above the Paria Plateau. Hours later this storm would become quite the conflagration - some say the biggest electrical storm in the area in 37 years - but, early in its development, the sunset lit up the rain curtain falling from the clouds as the Lightning God Danced.

  • Looking across the Kaibito Plateau, a late August Thunderstorm rumbles in the distance to the west. As the storm slowly recedes, the sky above opens up to the Milky Way.

  • There are a number of different ways to classify lightning; one of the distinctions is whether a lightning strike is a GC strike of an IC strike. GC strikes are Ground Strikes, where the lightning strike is between the cloud and the ground. An IC strike is an Inter-Cloud strike, where the lightning strike does not contact the ground and is between clouds. On a late August evening, this storm was producing some energetic lightning - both GC lightning and IC lightning. This strike appears to have started out as an Inter-Cloud strike, but as it reached from the cloud in the foreground to the clouds in the distance, it finds a more attractive positive charge point on the cliff tops of the Paria Plateau.

  • A fast moving squall swept into Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in the late afternoon; It came in over Antelope Canyon - where a flash flood lowered the canyon floor by five feet - and a wall of rain curtained off Warm Creek Bay from Wahweap Bay as lightning danced across the landscape. A tour boat slowed to give its passengers a front row view.

  • As the last twilight of sunset fades in the west, this late August monsoon really began to energize and put on a show as the lightning strikes became more frequent and more electric.

  • It wasn't a large storm that rolled into the Wahweap Bay area of Lake Powell in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area - that along with a big anvil cloud had already come and passed at sunset - it was instead a small little storm cell with only a hint of rain. It crept in from the west like a small amorphous whale floating in the empty sky as the last vestiges of sunset color drained from the sky. But, unlike the big storm with its dramatic cloud structure that far overshadowed any electricity in the storm, this smaller trailing storm packed some real electrical punch with powerful lightning strikes reaching out to the shore of Lake Powell.

  • Hanging over the Paria Plateau, this monsoon storm slowly built in strength in place, its only perceivable movement its growth in size around the edges. As it expanded beyond the plateau, bolts of lighting reach out across the canyon for the Echo Cliffs.

  • As a late summer thunderstorm mixes with an early fall cold front, fast moving and violent storms cross the high plateaus and deep canyons of the Colorado Plateau. As this storm moved northeast from the Kaibab Plateau and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, the landscape below it gave away from over 8,000 feet to about 5,000 and then back up to over 7,000 feet as it moved over the Grand Staircase and the Kaiparowits Plateau. With the landscape illuminated by a freshly revealed near-full moon, the storm unleashes its furry onto the landscape.

  • Lightning travels a path between negatively charged and positively charged ions; this path usually takes a route between a cloud and the ground (GC, or Ground Strike) or between two clouds (IC, or Inter-Cloud). This ground strike reaches out into the distance and ever so briefly latches onto the rim of the Paria Plateau as if it is counting coup.

  • It was a very hot summer day - over 100°F - a little too hot for a mid-August day in the middle of monsoon season. Thunderstorms were not considered likely, but on a day this warm with moisture levels elevated, cumulonimbus cloud building went on all through the afternoon. By sunset, this storm cells all erupted at once. To the north, south, east, and west, four different squalls began clawing the landscape with lightning...The storm to the south swept in from the west over the Kaibab Plateau and was the most violent of the four systems. As it slowly moved across the Marble Platform, lightning spiked the earth, often striking near or into Marble Canyon where the Colorado River carves its way towards Grand Canyon.

  • A late afternoon storm quickly builds over the Paria Plateau and moves quickly northeast across the Vermilion Cliffs. Two bolts of lightning reach out simultaneously - one to the top of the plateau and one to the sides of the plateau's cliffs as if to jump start the landscape.

  • Like something out of Cinderella, three angry strikes of lightning overshadow one plainly dressed, solitary strike.

  • Monsoon Season usually comes to Glen Canyon and Lake Powell around the middle of July, but in 2011 it was starting to present itself by the Fourth of July. And, two days later it did not disappoint as a monster of a storm began to build over the Paria Plateau to the southwest. By early evening, the storm's fury slammed into Glen Canyon and Lake Powell just west of Page, Arizona. Gale force winds, pounding winds and rumbling thunder all added to the atmosphere created by the electrical show put on over Wahweap Marina.

  • At times, freezing a lightning strike reminds me of ghost stories... in real time they are bright, but fleeting moments that do not last long enough for the eye or the mind to fully comprehend. But, once you freeze it, the deeper moment can be fully realized.

  • When we sit and watch a lightning strike, we are dazzled by the brilliant flashes of light and the booming claps of thunder. But, when you freeze time with a photograph, what we find is a whole other world... one where snake gods spit bolts of lightning.

  • A violent and electric squall swept into Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in the late afternoon; It came in over Antelope Canyon - where a flash flood lowered the canyon floor by five feet - and a wall of rain curtained off Warm Creek Bay from Wahweap Bay as lightning danced across the landscape. As the storm receded north over the Kaiparowits Plateau, a final outburst of lightning strikes reached out for the cliffs surrounding Wahweap and Warm Creek Bays.

  • It wasn't a large storm that rolled into the Wahweap Bay area of Lake Powell in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area - that along with a big anvil cloud had already come and passed at sunset - it was instead a small little storm cell with only a hint of rain. It crept in from the west as the sunset's color was beginning to drain from the sky. But, unlike the big storm with its dramatic cloud structure that far overshadowed any electricity in the storm, this smaller trailing storm packed some real electrical punch with powerful lightning strikes reaching out to the shore of Lake Powell.

  • It was a very hot summer day - over 100°F - a little too hot for a mid-August day in the middle of monsoon season. Thunderstorms were not considered likely, but on a day this warm with moisture levels elevated, cumulonimbus cloud building went on all through the afternoon. By sunset, this storm cells all erupted at once. To the north, south, east, and west, four different squalls began clawing the landscape with lightning...The storm to the south swept in from the west over the Kaibab Plateau and was the most violent of the four systems. As it slowly moved across the Marble Platform, lightning spiked the earth, often striking near or into Marble Canyon where the Colorado River carves its way towards Grand Canyon.

  • When we sit and watch a lightning strike, we are dazzled by the brilliant flashes of light and the booming claps of thunder. But, when you freeze time with a photograph, what we find is a whole other world... one where gods play like these two dancing on the rim above the Echo Cliffs

  • A late August thunderstorm passes along the Echo and Vermillion Cliffs; a lightning bolt strikes into the heart of the Paria Plateau as it slams into the side of the Vermiliion Cliffs.

  • For hours this late August monsoon thunderstorm hung over the Paria Plateau in Northern Arizona, slowly building in energy, slowly growing to the south towards the Marble Platform. Then, suddenly it blossomed to the north over Paria Canyon and Lees Ferry and continued north towards Lake Powell and Big Water, Utah. With sheer force of will, this storm began to lash at the landscape with ferocious energy... if the gods had been angered.

  • For hours this late August monsoon thunderstorm hung over the Paria Plateau in Northern Arizona, slowly building in energy, slowly growing to the south towards the Marble Platform. Then, suddenly it blossomed to the north over Paria Canyon and Lees Ferry and continued north towards Lake Powell and Big Water, Utah. With sheer force of will, this storm began to lash at the landscape with ferocious energy... These three strikes came in quick succession.

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