Lightning strikes to Chicago's skyscrapers: Sears, Hancock & Trump
CHICAGO, IL - For the past 4 years, I have been working on an ongoing project to document upward lightning strikes to Chicago's skyscrapers. Lightning routinely strikes the Sears Tower, the John Hancock building and now the Trump Tower during most storms that pass over the city. So far I have made seven separate expeditions to the city to attempt capturing imagery and video. While upward lightning is common and occurs many times per year, it is very difficult to know ahead of time when a storm capable of these type of discharges will pass over the city. Out of the 7 trips to Chicago, I have captured upward strikes to the buildings on only three of them. I plan to continue this project indefinitely (or until I obtain satisfatory results).
A note about the June 23, 2010 event: A prolific upward lightning event occured in Chicago on the evening of June 23, 2010 and made international headlines. I unfortunately missed this event due to incorrectly forecasting the placement of the thunderstorms by evening. This event was typical of Chicago upward lightning. Despite rumors to the contrary, it is very common for upward discharges to initiate on more than one tall object simultaneously (see the FAQ below). In this case, several of the discharges hit all three major skyscrapers at the same time (Sears, Trump and Hancock). The photos and videos in the news were all authentic and unedited. You can read more about upward lightning in my online article on the subject.
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