We had a pretty wicked line of thunderstorms roll through Chicago last night. I propped my Flip video camera up on the windowsill to capture the hot lightning action. It gets worse as time goes on. Close strike around 3:58.
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We had a pretty wicked line of thunderstorms roll through Chicago last night. I propped my Flip video camera up on the windowsill to capture the hot lightning action. It gets worse as time goes on. Close strike around 3:58.
AaronS
on 05 Aug 08Wow, some close stuff, love watching it though. I like photographing it too.
Rick
on 05 Aug 08Yawn! Funny how this is a big deal in the city? This happens all the time here in the plains, so much so, I never thought to record it and post it to the interwebs.
Tom
on 05 Aug 08“hot lightning action”
Had to say it!
Jay
on 05 Aug 08You should see the storms we get in Florida :-) It’s like fireworks all the time in June.
truf
on 05 Aug 08Tokyo, too. http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=8JLrCCqQ3zI
Anonymous Coward
on 05 Aug 08Yawn! Funny how this is a big deal in the city? This happens all the time here in the plains
Rick, you are obviously cooler than all of us. I’m sure 37signals will get your “is this a cool enough storm” approval before posting anything weather related in the future.
Justin Reese
on 05 Aug 08Beautiful. I love a good rainstorm, even with lightning, and definitely through trees in the city. I wish it would rain here two or three times a week.
Good show, Jason.
Justin Reese
on 05 Aug 08Oh, and how cool that the Viddler preview screen grabbed a mid-lightning scanning frame. Insane.
Anonymous Coward
on 05 Aug 08Yawn! Funny how this is a big deal in the city? This happens all the time here in the plains
It’s a big deal in the city because storms like that never happen in the city. I’ve lived in Chicago for ten years and have never seen a storm that bad. Also, people in the city tend to be from a more geographically diverse area, and as a result, many have never seen a storm like that. I’m 33 years old and last night was the first time I’ve ever heard a tornado warning siren.
Keith
on 05 Aug 08It’s notable when a storm has driving rains and heavy lightning that cancels hundreds of flights in the summer. Apparently the wind was blowing so hard that the rain was sideways for like 30 minutes straight.
I’ve seen lots of storms living in the south, but this one seemed out of the ordinary. Thanks for capturing…I loved the big thunder clap at 3:58 thanks for pointing it out.
Sebastian
on 05 Aug 08Actually, this was a pretty big deal regardless where you from. We had hurricane-strength winds of up to 95mph on the Lakefront. Last time I checked CNN had 24/7 coverage of Tropical Storm Edouard with winds maxing out at 60 mph. Damn hurricane bias!
Dan Benjamin
on 05 Aug 08Nice work. Of course this is everyday here in Florida …
Nathan Borror
on 05 Aug 08That’s nothing, stop by Kansas sometime :)
Andre Fonseca
on 05 Aug 08I’ve got some fun video from when the storm hit Wrigley last night!
stevenp
on 05 Aug 08Sure is a lot of dick-waving going on in this thread. I had no idea storms with 95 MPH winds were so routine!
Bjorn
on 05 Aug 08You call that dick-waving? Where I come from, they used to knock out mules with a single stroke. Now that’s what I call dick-waving.
Rick
on 05 Aug 08“cooler than all of US”
Coward, let me know when I can get in the clique, or do I have to ask all of you for permission to post the obvious.
Just remember, I’m the guy that takes pictures of the Starbucks and posts them to my Flickr account ;)
Jay
on 05 Aug 08On the way to NYC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26035947/
Christopher J
on 05 Aug 08I agree with the Chicago folks. Having lived in the south for almost 20 years, this certainly is a common thing in some areas, but this was the first time in 9 years of living in Chicago that I ever heard a tornado siren that wasn’t a test. Was also the first time in my life that I’ve ever taken shelter from a storm. Walked outside this morning to find a giant tree crashed on top of two Hondas that were in nasty shape.
John
on 05 Aug 08I had a layover last month at O’Haire that got delayed 2 1/2 hours do to lightening. From the Johnny Rockets we had an awesome view of it though.
Andy Kant
on 05 Aug 08Probably a result of Chicago’s bad karma (says the Brewers fan).
Drew
on 06 Aug 08I live near Irving Park and the lake front with two other guys from rural Indiana/Michigan. We’re used to this sort of thing back home, but our upstairs neighbors aren’t. While our neighbors were running to the basement for cover, my roommates ran upstairs to get a better view of the storm, nearly getting killed by a falling branch (yes, they’re stupid).
Anyway, our urban garden on the front porch (several tomato and pepper plants) was trounced and several large potted plants whipped off the window sill with the wind. Lost a lot of tomatoes yesterday.
Incredible storm, nonetheless.
Jeff
on 06 Aug 08I just moved to Chicago from Michigan about 2 months ago. Had to Google what to do in when you’re in a high-rise and a tornado hits. It basically said stay away from windows and elevators so I just kicked back and enjoyed the light show…
Mark Holton
on 06 Aug 0890,000 — the number of lightning strikes across northern Illinois during Monday night’s storm
6 months — the period of time it usually takes to record that many lightning strikes
800 — the number of strikes per minute during the peak of Monday night’s storm
MH
on 06 Aug 08What? Certain weather patterns avoid large urban areas?
David Ditzler
on 06 Aug 08I was doing the same thing. I started with my point and shoot camera then brought out my “real”camera.
still shot: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ditzlerphoto/2734634451/
video: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ditzlerphoto/2734724339/
There are some some more shots on my Flickr profile. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ditzlerphoto
Adam
on 06 Aug 08Here’s another view from Wrigley provided by MLB. You get to see the lightening before the rain fell.
Nicole
on 06 Aug 08Awesome pics & vid, guys…
I moved to Southeastern CT in ‘02 (from CHI) and that first summer every Friday night we had a thunderstorm that would knock out some of our more rural broadband customers. Since then, zippo… and never anything that looked like this!
Thanks for the post – this is one of a thousand reasons we’re moving back to Chi…
Eden
on 06 Aug 08Thunderstorm, eh? That was a cute little one I suppose. :)
Try monsoon season in Tucson, AZ.
JF
on 07 Aug 08Try monsoon season in Tucson, AZ.
Lived through 4 years of monsoon season in Tucson. I haven’t seen a thunder/lightning storm like this one before.
rob
on 07 Aug 08I was stuck at O’hare while this was going on. The view was wide open across the tarmac and there was plenty of lightning. One even hit a plane as it sat on the tarmac after the tornado warning had past.
Q dub
on 08 Aug 08Anyone go out by the lake? The view of the lightning storm was phenomenal!
This discussion is closed.