Lightning strikes and thunder rolls

What a night last night was here! Wasn't any heat lightning this time! It started out pretty mild, isolated towers, one even generating a 1" hail report down at our airport, which was far enough from my location to miss it all, then, things started to get severe warned...First the radio went off... severe warning on a thunderstorm headed my way (radar image above). Then, the CodeRed weather alert chimed in... then, the TV (not to be outdone) offered up its EAS tone. I rushed outside with my camera first... WHAT A SHELF CLOUD!!! Really spectacular, looking north from my backyard. You see the leading edge of that wallop on radar. I quickly grabbed the patio furniture, as the radar suggested that winds from the bowing segment could have been an issue. Then, it came... moments into the thunderstorm, we lost power (fortunately, as I was finishing up dinner preparation), and Mini-Dew became one of my appendages, affixed to my hip (she's not a big fan of storms or power outages). How I raised a child afraid of weather is beyond me... Anyways, the lightning in this system was AMAZING! What a show, for 2 1/2 solid hours, it flashes several times per second. It boomed all around us. Brilliant scattering streaks crawling across the sky, occasional CG, and some CC within the clouds, which momentarily mimicked daylight. As my wonderful groom so eloquently put it while holding up his camera phone... "It's like shooting fish in a barrel, but I'm going to get lightning on my phone." Lo and behold... he got one... see?! I was out there myself, though... shooting lightning Dew-style! (without a tripod, sorry...) Fortunately, power was restored after 2 1/2 hours. It was spectacular!

Have a Dew-rific day and a great weekend and Fathers' Day!
~Dewdrop