A strong thunderstorm was rolling in, so I ran outside and dropped my camera in the back porch on its tripod. I took cover inside and left the camera running for half an hour. This is the first twelve minutes of a storm that later produced a tornado in Amsterdam, NY on September 4, 2011. Video was recorded in upstate New York, about 9 miles away from Amsterdam.

Most of the excitement is over after the first four minutes, but it looks like there was a lightning strike right in front of the camera at the 2:35 mark, and another strike further away at the 8:10 mark. The weather is usually pretty boring here, but thunder storms are exciting!

If I could do this over again I’d put that metal chair out in the yard in front of the camera to see if the lightning would hit it. I would also use a better camera than this old Canon Powershot A470. It really might be time for me to finally get a HD camera.

Filed under: Nature

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