Thunderstorm by Elburn, Illinois along the UP Geneva sub

Severe weather hits the Fox River Valley in the evening near Elburn, Illinois on August 13, 2010.

Combination storm chaser and rail video. I had shot some earlier video of the storm approaching. ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/basicbil... ) After it passed, I tried to get ahead of it again by driving east to a spot along the Union Pacific tracks where I had a view to the northwest. I barely had time to set up when the storm hit.

The camera was mounted on a tripod in my car and pointed out the open passenger side front window. Once the full fury of the storm hit and rain was blasting into the car and onto the camera lens I figured it was too late to roll up the window and so just kept it rolling. Camera was pretty well soaked as well as my right side.

I was huddled in the driver's seat with my laptop watching the ATCS Monitor. An eastbound commuter was lined up to come out of the Elburn yard just to the west. I hoped it would run by soon since everything was getting waterlogged. Finally the Metra commuter lit up the area. I figured that was a good finale and I was about to shut down when a westbound ran by. So that was even better.

One of the craziest storm and/or train videos I've ever made. Back in the day, we might have called the rain distorted lights "psychedelic."