This has been going on for over 30 mins, its the coolest thing I've seen in awhile. We had some slid looking thunderstorms roll by 5-10 miles to the north and were under severe thunderstorm warnings. Those are past, the rain has stopped. There is a constant roar (like high wind, but it is still outside). In the sky, the clouds are flashing like a strobe light. You cannot see any individual lightning bolts though. Its almost like the Tom Cruise version of War of the Worlds. No tornadoes on radar.

Sounds awesome.

Pics or it didn't happen!

H&K-Guy

We happened to be caught on a camping trip when I first saw heat-lighting. I was in Boy Scouts as a teenager. Trying to sleep, middle of the night, and just like you describe it - almost constant flashes, almost constant low rumbles, then an occasional BRIGHT flash and huge crack over us.

I think several of the other kids were just annoyed. I thought it was the coolest damned thing ever! haven't ever seen it since.

I took a video on my phone from inside, I should have gone outside. It didn't turn out that great because the light differential kept messing it up. This is the closest Youtube video to the intensity of it, only it was almost directly on top of us instead of off in the distance. You could not see any individual bolts.

Someone else's heat lightning

I remember going to a backyard party in high school and there was heat lightning off in the distance. It was like that scene in Saving Private Ryan where there is bombing or artillery going off on the horizon. No sound.

it lasted three hours last night,
looked like 600 people above the clouds ,turning the lights off and on

Between 3pm to 8 pm daily, June 1 to Mid August its a daily event here...

Johnston area here, and that was one of the coolest displays of weather I've experienced. The lightning was amazing and I sat on the couch and watched the entire thing upstairs while everyone slept.

My grandparents, parents, etc. used to call it heat lightning but then I found out that heat lightning is just lightning that is far enough away that you can't hear the thunder.

When I would spend my summers on my grandparents farm on the DelMarVa peninsula, used to see this all the time in the summer down there. Used to get some really wicked storms.

quote:

Originally posted by kx90:
...but then I found out that heat lightning is just lightning that is far enough away that you can't hear the thunder...

This.

quote:

Originally posted by Scuba Steve Sig:
I took a video on my phone from inside, I should have gone outside. It didn't turn out that great because the light differential kept messing it up. This is the closest Youtube video to the intensity of it, only it was almost directly on top of us instead of off in the distance. You could not see any individual bolts.

Someone else's heat lightning

I remember going to a backyard party in high school and there was heat lightning off in the distance. It was like that scene in Saving Private Ryan where there is bombing or artillery going off on the horizon. No sound.

Sounds like cloud-to-cloud lightening.

Cloud to cloud (CC) and intra-cloud (IC)

Lightning discharges may occur between areas of cloud without contacting the ground. When it occurs between two separate clouds it is known as inter-cloud lightning, and when it occurs between areas of differing electric potential within a single cloud it is known as intra-cloud lightning. Intra-cloud lightning is the most frequently occurring type.

Intra-cloud lightning most commonly occurs between the upper anvil portion and lower reaches of a given thunderstorm. This lightning can sometimes be observed at great distances at night as so-called "heat lightning". In such instances, the observer may see only a flash of light without hearing any thunder.

Another term used for cloud–cloud or cloud–cloud–ground lightning is "Anvil Crawler", due to the habit of charge, typically originating beneath or within the anvil and scrambling through the upper cloud layers of a thunderstorm, often generating dramatic multiple branch strokes. These are usually seen as a thunderstorm passes over the observer or begins to decay. The most vivid crawler behavior occurs in well developed thunderstorms that feature extensive rear anvil shearing.

I think the lightning went on for 45 min or so after the rain quit here. Very unusual. My daughter and her 3 girls are staying with us while their house in KC is being built. They have been in Victoria, BC for last 4 years. 6 year old grandaughter had really never seen lightning before (they don't get it on the island there). She was very intrigued but a little scared also.

Always fun to watch in the summer time. Remember being with friends from California in college that had never experienced it before. They were absolutely amazed.

In my area, south-Central-Va, we have had more thunder and electrical storms this year, that the past 3 years combined.

One storm a month ago, lightning struck some friends old farm home (not occupied), burnt to the ground.