Over the past six years my research colleagues and I have filmed lightning using high-speed digital cameras. In total we have captured 776 naturally occurring lightning flashes with recording speeds as high as 100,000 images per second. 158 of these flashes were cloud flashes in which some of the lightning leaders propagated outside of the clouds. 372 of theses flashes were negative cloud-to-ground flashes (-CG) and 206 were positive cloud-to-ground flashes (+CG). 41 of the flashes were upward flashes originating from tall towers in Rapid City.
During this last summer, we pursued a storm into the Badlands of South Dakota. The Badlands are a beautiful area of erosion in the plains creating incredibly photogenic landscapes, and it is personally one of my favorite places to photograph lightning. On this particular day, I was filming from the Pinnacles Overlook looking east across a road. I filmed a number of flashes, but during one instance I not only captured a +CG flash, I also captured a rare wild tourist roaming the South Dakota plains. Because I film from a highly modified truck with cameras and gadgets sticking out of it, he was a bit curious by the appearance of my vehicle. However, he was clearly more interested in getting to the next viewpoint and quickly scurried off never to be seen again. Here is the video…