2AM Thunderstorm September 18th 2011

This is a recording of a thunderstorm that passed through in the middle of the night and completely caught me off guard. This is the time of year that the weather here in the North Idaho panhandle brings surprises. Cold, heat, wind, rain and lightning are the norm on any given day. The weekend was much cooler than the last two months and I should have known a storm would zip on though and I almost missed it. I checked the weather before heading off to sleep and there was a 30% chance of rain but no thunder in the forecast. My gear was down in my basement studio as I was rocked out of bed by a huge thunder clap. I fumbled my way to the gear and rushed to get my MKH-8040ST plugged in to my SD-702 and place the mic outside the front door. I noticed my Low cut filter was on from a previous session and tried to change it quickly but missed an amazing lightning strike.

All was not lost so I began recording as there was just a slight misty rain and hoped the storm would continue and it did. The wind and rain picked up as the thunder was distant and then there was a closer lightning strike off to the East and the echo ping ponged against the nighttime mountains. As the wind and rain became even stronger there was another strike and below you can listen to both strikes edited together. There is no EQ or compression just some soft L2 limiting.

Enjoy! -Frank