Lightning, one of the most difficult things to photograph it seems, lights up the sky during a severe weather delay at Chapman Stadium as Oklahoma State and Tulsa wait to play their football game Saturday. Waited so long, in fact, that it was Sunday when they finally started. Check the link at the bottom for advice from our chief photgrapher on how to take lightning shots! MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa World
It wasn't to college football's benefit, but realignment of the storm clouds brought much-needed rain Saturday night to both Oklahoma and Texas.
First, let's acknowledge our neighbors to the south and their lightning-delayed Baylor-Stephen F. Austin football game. The Associated Press quote from the Baylor coach afterward should say it all:
"We get a win and it rains, that's pretty hard to beat right now," Baylor coach Art Briles said.
And, what was apparently the cause of as much cheering as Baylor having a winning, ranked football team again, officials told the spectators after a 41-minute rain delay that they would skip halftime's break and shorten the final quarters by three minutes each.
And THEN, the Associated Press reports, more lightning approached with 2:58 left in the third quarter, the coaches met at midfield, shook hands and let the clock run out in the quarter to make it an official game.
Here are some photos from Texas' lightning show and from the game Baylor hosted:
Hang in there Baylor fans! This is before the game was called Saturday night in Waco, Texas. TONY GUTIERREZ/AP Photo
Credit Stephen F. Austin fans for also braving the severe weather to watch their team Saturday night in Waco. TONY GUTIERREZ/AP Photo
And now, a little bit further north and a little bit further east to Paris, Texas, which is about two hours' drive northeast of Dallas. All three of these photos' credit are SAM CRAFT/AP Photo/The Paris News:
And... the Saturday night late game with the University of Tulsa hosting Oklahoma State University. It was delayed for so long that it became a Sunday morning game. If you haven't read up on this yet, check it out
here.
"A lightning-heavy storm caused Chapman Stadium to be evacuated prior to kickoff," the article said. "The game did not start until 12:16 a.m. Sunday and did not finish until 3:35 a.m."
I know it must have been tough to wait that long for the OSU-Tulsa game. OU was just fortunate that they were not hosting the Florida State game this year instead of last year, because the storm also hit the Oklahoma City area and likely would have affected a game in Norman.
Please enjoy the photos taken by our Tulsa World photojournalists. They worked all night to bring them to you!
Tulsa's official rainfall total for Saturday? 0.78 of an inch. I guess lightning just makes storms seem a little bit more... large.
--Althea Peterson
PS: Want to take your own lightning photos next time severe weather strikes? Check out my previous entry with guidance from Tulsa World's chief photographer Tom Gilbert
here.
