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I just posted yesterday on a weather geek thread, and then yesterday afternoon went to visit my brother.
At 8:00 p.m. we looked at the weather map because they had been predicting severe storms all day here in SW and mid-SE Michigan. Nothing on the radar AT ALL, so my brother (who lives east of Coldwater) said, ah, go on home.
I left his house, drove 20 minutes to Coldwater (going west), turned north on I69 and saw a few flashes and thought great! it'll rain on the garden. 20 miles later, a storm came up like a stormchaser's best dream.
It began with what I call crawling lightning, when a bolt starts in a cloud, crawls across the cloud base, and then breaks into multiple branches. No rain yet. For 20 minutes I was treated to a fabulous display of pretty numerous strokes, then all of a sudden all hell breaks loose (still no rain!) and lightning is strobing EVERYWHERE. It was like being in a disco in the 70s!
I listen on the radio, no warnings no watches, no nothing announced! The lightning became so intense I could see the leaves on the trees along the highway, and the continous outline of low hanging clouds. (yes, I was looking by this time for rotation) STILL NO RAIN.
I go another 10 minutes, and the lightning starts striking the ground in front of me and to either side, and the rain starts POURING. A real frog strangler. By this time my hands were getting pretty sweaty.
I think that's the most intense display of lightning I've ever seen. I've seen some real thrillers, but that one took the cake, and it blew up in a matter of 20 minutes, the fastest I've ever seen. There were two tornadoes, but they were 30-40 miles east of where I was.
I got home and the weather channel is talking about the storms, saying they "exploded" across lower SW and mid-Michigan.
Well, no sh*t sherlock! Eat your hearts out, fellow weather lovers!
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