Summer lightning

[Richard Ranft]

The past three months in UK have been the wettest since records began in 1910, but it's not the only place experiencing foul weather. Here's an impressive recording from Ray Mansell in New York state of a thunderstorm over his home last Monday (warning: loud strike at 3'50" and after):

Ray wrote on the nature recordists list: "As it happens, the storm tracked directly over the house, and I got rather more than I had bargained for. Even though I had set the recording level very low, still the system was totally overwhelmed by the nearest strikes (literally just outside the window just a few tens of yards into the woods). The storm produced wind, rain, hail, and of course thunder and lightning. ...My poor dog was a quivering wreck, hiding under the desk."

[Source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naturerecordists]

[Cheryl Tipp]

An amazing recording of a difficult subject to capture.