Amazing early morning lightning

With warm air advection storms slowly drifting our way, even after minimal sleep the previous night, I decided to stay up and wait for things to roll in. The storms were very unimpressive on radar so I wasn't initially sure that I would even leave the house. I'd spent the previous three days in Des Moines, IA for the Iowa NWA Severe Storms Conference and just arrived home that night, so I was worthless pile all evening and didn't want to go anywhere really. Around 2 or 3 I got up and looked out the window in the living room and immediately saw a nice bolt of lightning snake through the sky. That was enough motivation for me, sleepy as I was. I grabbed a can of Coke out of the fridge and hit the road. I got out to my usual sitting spot and began popping off photos as lightning crawled across the sky behind the turbines.

I ran back home once rain began to fall at my location, and the lightning had died out. I was probably only out there for 15 minutes or so. Right as I got home the sky began lighting up again, but this time with actual intense and close cloud to ground bolts that shook the entire neighborhood. I decided the perfect end to the night would be just sitting on the porch with my feet kicked up watching the light show and torrential rains (hoping for a little hail!). That said, once this storm cleared the area I noticed a third cell intensifying to the west. The wind farm had already been done, so I decided since I was even more tired than before as it approached 4 AM that I'd just drive up to campus and use the parking deck up there. The lightning was a little bit less impressive this time, but was still a great end to a surprisingly electrified night.