The Lightning Bolt – And A Little Bit Of Everything

As Betsy and I had breakfast this morning we noticed a large storm cell drifting east from the Olympic Mountains toward Whidbey Island.  It was quite an impressive storm.  We noticed an occasional flash of lighting, so I decided to take a slow-motion video of one.  Here's the result, showing a couple flashes slowed down 8 times.  The dark land to the left is Whidbey Island, and near the island you can see a small boat heading to the right.  Doesn't look like a good place to be boating!

We could hear the thunder, too, as it rumbled around and reflected off the islands and cliffs in the neighborhood.  Our skies were blue, as they are now – quite delightful here.  On the news this morning we watched snow falling at Snoqualmie Pass, and now after seeing this lightning, it's a reminder that bad weather at a comfortable distance can be quite interesting.  Just glad we're not in the middle of it.

A few minutes later we looked out the window and saw that the storm had completely passed.  The Olympics were out now, and with fresh covering of snow showing brightly in the sun.

The same area where the storm and lightning strikes were happening just minutes before.

The Olympic Mountains in the background, and the tip of Allan Island in the foreground.

Fresh snow blankets the Olympics.

As the day progressed, we saw more and more types of weather coming our way.  At one point the sky to the west was very dramatic and dark.  The sun would pop through now and then like a spotlight, but we could also see precipitation dropping down from the clouds.  It hit us a couple minutes later, and we suddenly had hail bouncing all around.  Here are a couple videos of hail pummeling our deck.

Next, the sky started to clear, and the sun broke through.  A rainbow appeared in the front yard.  As I took pictures of the rainbow loud thunder was booming all around.  To top it off, a nice sunset followed.  Altogether, a pretty wild and wooly day.

Sun streaming through the clouds after our brief hail storm.

Hail peppers the front yard.

With the sun shining brightly a rainbow appears in the opposite direction.

The day seems to be calming down as the sun sets behind Burrows Island.

The end to a wild day.