Not really on fire, just lit up. The lightening has been spectacular, though better in some areas than others. My folks around Marble Hill got hammered with bolts and heat bursts.

My Illinois peeps got distinctive bolts busting out of the sky, some sizable, and some hitting ground. Massive show... and I am jealous.  I think you can see Gretchen's shots on Facebook by by clicking here.

So I checked my favorite website in the whole world, the Real Time Lightening Map. to see what we have popping up in my neck of the woods. 

Not much happening in my area. It's all north of me. Bummer. 

Before long I'm hearing thunder booms and go outside and the sky is lit up in three directions. Good old Southeast Missouri never fails to deliver on the unexpected. For several minutes the wind blew. The sky blackened, then grayed, and with every flashing of light you could make out the change in the the cloud formations. There were no visible bolts in the sky, just flashes; big, bright, flashes. The light reflecting and bouncing through those heavy clouds, layers and layers of them, made for some strange colors. 

The image below is shooting straight up over my head. There was a break in the clouds, but not a break nearly large enough to catch the streak I was looking for. I have no idea what the orange, parallel lines are on the left. Play on lighting and reflection? 

I'm moving all over this deck at this point, trying to get the best angle, when I realize there is literally unbridled electricity flashing all around me. I am barefoot, on a wet wooden deck, with a metal tripod in my hand. I can hear nothing but my mother's voice in my head, scolding me about how ridiculous I am and to go in the house. She's certainly right, but nothing like living dangerously, right? Right. 

Suddenly I see one small streak and manage to catch it. 

The bolts are making it lighter and lighter out each time. The clouds are thinning maybe?

And then boom! For several seconds the whole neighborhood lit up like it was a stormy mid afternoon. A little after 11:00 pm and I could have seen a candy wrapper in my neighbors yard. 

And then it was black again, with flashes of light so far up in the clouds nary a bolt fell through. At least not on the top of this hill. 

Not sure what makes all the orange color in an otherwise gray and bluish sky. Maybe one of my weather bug friends will chime in and fill me in. I find it interesting. 

The rain came and in the house I went. I wasn't getting any shots worth talking about anyway. 

It wasn't long before the rumbling started again but when I checked my map, grrrrr, the next front, the one making all the noise, was sliding in just south of me. 

It was pretty cool to watch it all cross the river to Illinois on the map though, and then jump Route 3. 

Saturday night, and I am sitting at home blogging about the lightening pictures that I didn't capture.

Man, I'm getting old.