Thunderbolt and lightning/Very very fright'ning

O what a storm last night! It bore down upon Warsaw from the north-west, getting ever closer, a broad front. Around 22:00 we could hear it coming; by 23:45 it was right overhead.


Left: the scariest strikes are the ones closest to you - flash - CRUMP! No time to count to 'one'. This thunderbolt must have hit somewhere along ul. Karczunkowska. Certainly this side of the railway line. The rain is lashing in through the balcony door.

Below: the storm recedes towards the south. Flashes are still frequent but intervals between them and the thunder are now much longer. Ten past midnight.

All shots at 100ISO, f10, with shutter set at 'B', manually closed after enough flashes have occurred - guesswork, corrected using Photoshop Lightroom. Auto Noise Reduction turned off (it takes as long for the camera to get rid of the artefacts - gaily coloured pixels amidst the darkness - as the exposure itself). This is frustrating, for while NR is going on in your camera, you're missing flashes. I get rid of the artefacts manually in Photoshop afterwards.

A thrillingly scary display of nature's wrath, though in intensity it did not match the Corpus Christi storm of June 2010.

This time last year:
Getting lost on top of Łopień

This time three years ago:
Regulatory absurdities in Poland

This time four years ago:
Czachówek and Alignment

This time five years ago:
Joy, pain, sunshine, rain