August Bank Holiday Weekend

It’s the last of the three English summer bank holidays so Sheryl and I decided to at least do something to celebrate/commemorate.

Saturday

So on Saturday morning we went for a drive! Starting out at 6am, with coffees in hand, we decided to head for the Yorkshire Wolds. On Sheryl’s part, I think we’ve done the Dales to death over the years and she likes to see something a little more green. The Wolds offer much more green at this time of the year than the sun-scorched moors of the Yorkshire Dales.

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We set ourselves a £30 diesel limit which bought us a nice morning loop. We pointed towards Selby and then deliberately missed, continuing to the A19 and then into the wild. These are roads we’ve never really covered before.

Sunday

We’ve been waiting all summer for a thunderstorm in Leeds but for all the storms that have graced the UK, none had approached this part of the world. Then late on Sunday afternoon we were finally visited by a bit of a storm. Naturally we jumped in the car to give chase.

Thunderstorms in these parts usually pass South of Leeds, and then head Northeast towards York. This time the storm was a little North of us and travelling a little more Westerly, so we headed towards Arthington, then Harewood, up towards Harrogate, then towards York. We spent most of the time just a little behind the storm, only a couple of times getting sufficiently underneath it to experience a downpour. By the time we got to the A1, we felt that our best chance was to turn away from York and head North towards Boroughbridge. Giving chase, we were still slightly losing ground as the storm moved Northeast over open country.

By the time we got to Boroughbridge we pretty much ran out of road, AND diesel, and not being particularly familiar with the area decided not to risk running out of fuel in the middle of nowhere. As soon as we found a spot far enough away from the hedgerows that we could see fields beyond, we pulled over to watch the storm disappear into the distance. Though we’d driven under some very dark clouds, the sun had yet to set, so the distant lightning was not contrasting very strongly with the sky. Accordingly, capturing a photo was quite the challenge. In the end my best shot of the lightning was a 10-second exposure, ISO 100 with an aperture of f/16. I shot 52 images prospecting for lightning exposures but got only one or two forks. The best of the images is presented below. A little bit later into the evening, I think my prospects of a good capture would certainly increase – longer exposure, wider aperture, better signal:noise ratio – but I’m pleased broadly with my capture of the angry sky that we experienced at least.