Lightning, Fog Videos Under the Harvest Moon

"Cold-hearted orb that rules the night
Removes the colors from our sight
Red is grey and yellow white"
-- The Moody Blues

I don't know if it's the full moon or what, but I haven't been able to sleep well this week. It's a special kind of moon this week, you know -- a Harvest Moon, the full moon nearest to the Autumn Equinox (more info @ WikiPedia).

I woke up about 12:30 Tuesday night, got up and did some work from 1 to 3, then still couldn't get back to sleep until 5:00. As a result of that and my daughter playing soccer practice next door to AccuWeather, I worked a strange 10am - 7pm schedule yesterday (check me out on the J-Cam at 7 PM, working late sucks!).

Last night I was kept up not by the moon but by thunderstorms passing nearby. Local storm chaser Ron "R-Factor" Shawley and I had our cameras out taking a look at lightning all around us (though we didn't actually get any rain until overnight. I have posted radar animations here).*

I was able to observe lightning from a distant storm under the harvest moon, which was a surreal experience. Most of the lightning was too far away for my camera to catch but I'll see if there's anything worth showing when I download the movies tonight. Ron got some excellent video looking the other direction (link coming soon). He also got another rolling fog video, which he wouldn't have been able to see except for that bright moon. This one contained some ghostly looking fog, fit for Halloween:

SEE RON'S ROLLING FOG:
SLIDESHOW | SHORT VIDEO WITH LIGHTNING | LONG VIDEO

Like Ron's last rolling fog video (raw timelapse or video with an explanation), this fog was caused by a thunderstorm's outflow boundary. In this case, Ron was too far from the storm to actually get it but the wind that had come down out of the storm, hit the ground and spread out, was cold enough to form this fog. This outflow boundary was weaker than last time so the fog was less dome-shaped and more erratic as it flowed up the mountain. Here's what the radar image looked like right before it hit him:

The outflow boundary is hard to see on the image above, it's easier to see if you download the loop.*

P.S.: In blaming the lack of sleep on the moon (which is something that has some basis), I recalled the Moody Blues lyrics above, from their song "Nights in White Satin." In the song, they say that the moon "removes the colors from our sight." This is, quite literally true. Think about it. Because colors are produced by light, when it's dark outside, there are no colors. It's not just too dark to see them - they actually don't exist! Mind-boggling.

Of course, as they say in the lyrics, when there is not sufficient light to illuminate an object, reds will appear gray and yellow will appear white - but there's nothing special about our lunar friend that causes it - you'll see the same thing in a dimly lit room.

*Quicktime required. "Save Target As" required for IE.