Storm chaser David Piano captured this amazing 'bolt from the blue' lightning flash from western Lake Ontario to the Burlington, Ontario, area at
approx. 0541 UTC on 18 Jul 2015.

The flash was isolated in the Southern Ontario Lightning Mapping Array database, and the resulting VHF 'sources'
and their evolution over time are shown above. The entire flash occurred over approx. 1.5 seconds, with sources at
the beginning of the period shown in blue and sources at the end shown in red. The part of the flash visible in the
photo extends rapidly from over the lake to the Burlington area to the northwest. The green triangle shows where the
Canadian Lightning Detection Network (CLDN) detected a negative cloud-to-ground (CG) flash. The green square
is the location of one of the SOLMA ground stations. The grey line is the outline of western Lake Ontario.

Storm-scale analysis showing IR satellite data, low-level radar reflectivity data, surface observations and CLDN lightning data. Note the negative CG in the Burlington area
with the parent storm over the far western end of Lake Ontario.




SOLMA 10-min source density at time of 'bolt from the blue'. Note the extension toward Burlington from the NW side of the storm.




SOLMA 1-hr source density showing the intense parent storm over western Lake Ontario





Map showing the locations of SOLMA ground stations in the Toronto area.

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Last updated December, 2015