It was cool and sunny in South Dakota when we woke up in our tent this morning. No indication of the craziness that ensued last night, other than the minor bowing to our east-facing tent poles that left our tent slightly askew. And we were among the lucky. Our tent had survived.
Around 8pm the lightning started. It was beautiful. The sun was setting behind a thick wall of clouds, and whenever the distant lightning struck, pink light puffs would appear and pulse throughout the sky.
The campground full, there didn’t seem to be need for alarm. Everyone was continuing on, getting ready for bed as they would if there were no threat nor signs of a storm. It wasn’t until I overheard a neighboring camper collecting his son, telling him “Let’s go. I don’t want to be here when it hits,” that I started to worry. We quickly checked the radar on Ian’s phone, and the image confirmed: it was coming. And it would hit hard.
For another 40 minutes there was still no real alarm to be observed from other campers. But the sky was something else. An amazingly active — yet eerily silent — performance of light and clouds. (Watch the video at the top of this post to see it in action!)
I won’t get into the ill-preparedness of the park/campground/lodge staff. Suffice it to say they weren’t prepared, and it was the alarm of a scattered few people (us included) to be thanked for our safe arrival to the basement of the Cedar Pass Lodge just as the storm hit.
All video footage (aside from the timelapse at 1:31) was taken on Friday, June 19 with the Sony RX-100 III. The timelapse was taken with the Sony a7II and Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens.
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This post was handcrafted especially for you during our travels to Yellowstone National Park, on our summer 2015 U.S. road trip.
Ian and Diana,
Spectacular video! So much lightning showing up that intense, tight rotation of the clouds! I grew up in tornado alley (Kansas), and always loved thunderstorms, but I have never seen a storm so beautiful. That was a rare treat!
Thanks for recording and sharing 🙂
Brad
Thanks Brad! I’ve never experienced a storm so utterly silent, either. It was so weird! And much less scary. 🙂
Hi Diana,
Are you and Ian watching the solar / aurora news?
Please, ask Ian to check his email. Ok?
Brad
Will do! We caught the Northern Lights at Yellowstone on Monday night, and it was AMAZING! We have a couple photos of it posted so far — on Lonely Speck Facebook and Instagram, and North to South Facebook and Instagram. 🙂
OMG! I was there in the campground that night!! I was in a big orange cabin tent. That’s something I never want to experience again. Thanks for uploading the video
No problem! I was wondering when someone we shared the experience with was going to see this. 🙂