© Roger Hill PhotographyLightning strikes near Kitt Peak, Ariz. July 29, 2016.
"You could hear the crackle and sizzle in the air," said Roger Hill, after the lighting bolt exploded from the desert sky.
Hill, a veteran storm chaser, was leading a photography tour in Arizona's desert at the height of the monsoon season in late July.
Hill and his group were watching a storm that had flared up over Kitt's Peak, about 55 miles southwest of Tucson, notorious for spawning monsoon storms.
As the storm collapsed, a cool wake rushed in their direction. This outflow then clashed with the hot desert air, initiating convective currents. Very quickly, a new storm erupted. "It formed almost right on top of us," Hill said.
Then the lightning struck and the thunder roared simultaneously. "It was instantaneous and it was extremely loud," Hill said. "It hit about 100 yards away."
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