A great night for monsoon lightning photos!
Despite lousy dew points and low humidty, and my awesome prediction skills (they suck), a fairly strong thunderstorm built up over south Chandler and then spread to a good portion of the East Valley.
We pulled in over half an inch of rain at my house and recorded a wind gust of 42.2mph.
Once the rain died down, I headed south and pulled over. I was a serious storm chaser at this point…had my latop on the passenger seat connected to the internet with my Blackberry watching the radar. My big fear was being struck by lightning so I was trying to find an open area.
As I was deciding what to do, a Maricopa County DPS office pulled up behind me, flashed me with that spotlight and asked for my license.
When he found out what I was doing out there, he laughed and told me he was confident I was about to get some good shots. Thanks man!
He was right.
The first four shots in the gallery below were taken south of Hunt Highway looking northeast towards a very active cell.
But the final ones were taken on Riggs between Cooper/Gilbert Roads looking northwest. In those shots you can see a plume of smoke in the foreground from a lumber yard fire at Arizona/Chandler Heights.
