Celebrity Montreal Thunderstorm

When I was in Montreal last week, I didn't realize I was meeting an Internet celebrity.

It was the peak of that big heat wave last Wednesday. It was 95 in Montreal, so at least it was three degrees cooler than it was at home in St. Albans, Vermont. But still.

Before the light show: Thunderstorms erupt
over Montreal at sunset, July 21. 

Unlike in the states, some thunderstorms got going just after sunset in Montreal. They did cool things off just a bit.

One thunderstorm, an isolated one, got the most attention. Unlike the line of storms that later hit Montreal this one drifted to the southeast of the city. It was a tall, immense, round tower of roiling clouds, with lightning sparking from it like crazy.


Seems everybody in the city aimed their cameras at the light show. Even lively Rue St. Catherine in Montreal stopped as people gazed at the lightning spitting from the cloud south of the city. It looked like the forerunner of some alien invasion.

Some of the best videos of the storm are here and here.

Below is the video I shot of the "alien storm" I shot from a corner on Rue St. Catherine. I like the sound of the street musician in the background as the lightning flashes and sputters: