In-Cloud Lighting, May 4, 2012, NE Madison County, IL

by John Farley

The evening of May 4, two strong storms moved through northeast Madison County, producing pea to dime size hail along with near continuous in-cloud lightning. Here are a couple pictures of lightning in the upper part of the first of the two storms, taken from the backyard in Edwardsville looking up and to the northeast:

Southwest Illinois storm chaser Dan Robinson intercepted the storms farther southeast in Clinton County, getting spectacular pictures of cloud-to-ground lightning over Lake Carlyle and, earlier, a nice shelf cloud near Breeze. You can see his pictures here. My pictures from this night can't touch Dan's, but I don't think they are bad for never having left my backyard.

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