Storm Chasing in Cape Cod

We just got back from a long weekend in Cape Cod  and the weather didn't disappoint. It was hot, sunny and beautiful. Perfect for swimming in the South of the Cape where the sea is warm from the currents that flow up from Florida.

It was hot in the day and very hot and humid at night which is perfect storm weather. So for two out of the three nights we were treated with some big electric storms. I remember being so afraid of storms. They are still pretty scary but they are also very cool to watch.

We had finished eating dinner on Friday night and when we left the restaurant we saw the unmistakable flashes of light in the sky. It was just getting dark. I looked at the radar app on my phone (I know, I'm a geek) and I worked out that if I drove 20 minutes to Corporation Beach on the other side of the Cape, in the bay area, I would get to see the full force of the storm. 

Lightening Strike at Corporation Beach, Dennis, Cape Cod

When I got there, it was like that scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind where people were sat in their beach chairs (at night remember) and waiting for the UFO's to turn up. But these people were all waiting and watching the storm which was approaching fast from the west. It was quite funny to watch everyone with their mobile phones, frantically pressing their shutter buttons, trying to get lucky with a lightening strike at just the right moment. (Almost impossible to do!!)

Until this weekend, I've never been in the right place at the right time with my camera but I knew if attached a device a called an intervalometer to my camera, I could keep the shutter button pressed down until I saw a lightening bolt. Once I see the flash of lightening, I let go and...... BOOM... I got my first and just a little bit scary, lightening captured on camera...   

Double Lightening Strike at Corporation Beach, Dennis, Cape Cod