Mother Nature’s Celebration of Light

Lightning & fireworks in Vancouver 7/25/09 (photo source: @TylerIngram)

Last night a few hundred thousand flocked to English Bay, Kits Beach, Jericho Beach, and surrounding areas to watch South Africa play host to Vancouver’s Celebration of Light fireworks festival. However, a bigger performer decided to steal South Africa’s thunder (no pun intended). She was Mother Nature.

For a short period of time in the early evening, buckets of rain poured pairing with rolling thunder presented locals with one of the most beautiful purple, orange, blue, red sunsets Vancouver has ever laid eyes upon. Soon after, bolts of lightning flashed across the night sky as spectators were ready to watch South Africa light up the heavens.

Vancouver doesn’t get this kind humidity to  cause a powerful thunderstorm and lightning show. So if you’ve missed the action that went down last night (that probably won’t happen again for another few years), you can thank the several enthusiasts who dove into Twitter, YouTube, & Flickr to share with the rest of the world Mother Nature’s exhibition.

Lightning backed with a purple-orange sunset in Vancouver 7/25/09 (photo source: Uncle Buddha on Flickr)

Lightning backed with a purple-orange sunset in Vancouver 7/25/09 (photo source: Michael O'Neill! on Flickr)

Flash of lightning in Vancouver 7/25/09 (photo source: Christina T on Flickr)

Appreciate an amazing time-lapse footage from KatKam here: