May 29, 2006 Southwest Omaha Lightning
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Well this was an interesting day close to home for once. There was a cold front just east of town into IA that I targetted around 2 pm. I drove east and wound up meeting up with Bob Matzen from Blair north of Harlan IA. We watched the towers on this boundary for quite a long time. It was fun to at least be able to crack jokes about the day. We gave up on it about 4 hours later than we should have and headed home around 6:30. I've never seen storms so close for so long. The biggest problem was that area of convection in ne KS early in the day, morning actually. The cirrus from that stuff kept the cold front in check for quite a while. I loaded a satellite loop in Harlan before I went home and you could see how bad it really was. The windshift line on the east side of the cirrus canopy was interesting. Anyway, headed home disgusted from having a bust 3 days in a row, or so I thought. I went out to run the dogs around 9 and noticed the lightning to the south. I came back home for a while waiting on the convection to increase or move north. It was on the cold front finally. There was even a tornado warning just into KS. It increases and I head towards the east side of Omaha. I thought about getting the skyline and lightning from the casinos in IA but turned around figuring I'd just be dealing with anvill precip. I headed back west and to the sw side of Omaha. I get off at the Gretna exit and find a little gravel road that would work. Well the second I stop the sprinkles start. Ug. I then head west into Gretna and top off the tank. I then headed north to get out of the sprinkles. I stop at a new development between Elkhorn and Gretna. I drove around it and everywhere seemed to be just too low. Getting more and more frustrated I just about went home. The lightning hadn't been too crazy yet anyway, the sprinkles were pissing me off, and not being able to find a spot that works and is free of people wondering what you are doing were all adding up. Oh yeah and it was getting late after an already frustrating day and certainly last several days. Then I find it! A spot without a house and up high. I set up the camera and soon learn I would really wish I had my lens hood with. The couple of lights off to the left were causing flares on the images. So I had to sit there and hold either my hand or the bill of my hat just out of the picture and to the left of the lens. It was very annoying to do for as long as I did it but it was doing the job. I think I sat in this spot shooting these for a solid 2 hours. What a treat to be just outside of the sprinkles, at a high location free of any traffic(not one car ever came up to this spot) and have an intense area of convection just sitting there in on spot. Some of the anvil crawlers were rather amazing to watch. You'd get a big hit off on the horizon somewhere closer to the rain and then they would zoom for miles overhead. I do have some others but these are the better ones. |
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