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THUNDERSTORMS AND LIGHTNING OVER NORFOLK, VA. June 17, 2008 It has been some time since the April 28 EF-3 tornado that went through Suffolk. We have few storms since that time and little rain. We had some strong storms on Mother's Day with tornadoes in and around the area and a few weeks later a nasty line of storms with strong winds, lightning and hail move through and I still have to work on the video and a few photos from that day. That changed on the late evening of June 16th into early morning June 17th 2008. During the late afternoon some strong and severe storms moved through the area but to the north of me over the middle and upper peninsula. I just chalked it up as another day of no storms and went home. Watching the radar later in the night though, it became apparent that a line of storms developing out near Emporia was headed this way and strengthening. I headed out to downtown Portsmouth at around 11:30pm where I would usually go in the situation to shoot photos, the parking garage over looking Norfolk. The line moved in quickly but had a large gust front with it and the wind picked up pretty strongly and was reported to have been gusting to around 50mph or stronger. The NWS in Wakefield issued a warning for the storm as it moved into Virginia Beach. There was very little visible lightning with the line, mostly in cloud lightning. Once it passed, I headed home for the evening at around 1:00am. As I approached the house I noticed more lightning to the west. Another very strong and long line of storms was developing and moving this way producing a lot of lightning. I ended up going back downtown to the same garage I had just left and set up to shoot the lightning as it moved over Norfolk. Over all not a bad night for lightning and there were several reports of trees limbs downed and a house in Virginia Beach was struck by lightning were it caught the house on fire. No one was injured. STRONG WINDS AND LIGHTNING VIDEO: See video of the storms on June 17, 2008. Still to come.
Just 2 shots out of the first line of storms. These were the only visible bolts that I could see.
First shot from the second line of storms. It looks hazy because of the heavy rain falling.
Another shot as the rain picked up and blew into the window of the garage I was shooting from and onto the lens during this shot.
A huge bolt came down just out of camera range to the left over the city of Norfolk. Hate I missed it.
Two bolts coming down just behind the shipyard in downtown Norfolk. I was looking just south of due east.
Two crawlers from the backside of the storm moving through parts of Chesapeake and Norfolk.
Last 2 shots from the evening as the storms moved east quickly. The line continued south into parts of Chesapeake but I could not see from where I was and by the time I would have gotten to the area, the storms would have been gone.
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