Electrostatic Discharge over Mt. Diablo

© All rights reserved. A low-res, flatbed scan of a 6x7 (2 1/4 x 2 3/4 inch) transparency

 

This image comes from the night of August 6, 2015. We were out photographing the sunset (shot to come) and, right after, we noticed flashes to the south of Mt. Diablo. As luck would have it, several lightning-producing areas made their way by us to the northeast. Since we were north of the mountains, this seemed fortuitous.

In any case, it was a nice spectacle to behold, due to the fact that lightning, although certainly more frequent in decades past, has not exactly been a common phenomenon in the Bay Area of northern California in recent years.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Anecdotal side-notes:

 

The golden lightning to the left was a number of miles farther south and with its light reaching the camera after passing through much rain (and perhaps smoke), thus giving its color.

 

Much of the artificial light you see is from petroleum refineries. I decided not to color-correct it.

 

You can see a shaft of rain being illuminated by lightning at the top, center-right.

 

We could also use this sort of event over the Golden Gate Bridge more often. Haha.

 

 

 

Done