Satellite image above (20 Sept 2009 at 2330 UTC) shows a rare thunderstorm over the el Pinacate Reserve at the north end of the Gulf of California. Even though the Cerro del Pinacate rises to over 3900 ft MSL, thunderstorms and lightning strikes over/near the ancient volcano are very rare, thus the very nice and quite isolated storm, apparently triggered by the Cerro del Pinacate, caught my eye. The obvious questions related to this image are: 1) why are storms rare over this low albedo, high elevation, high low-level moisture, volcanic area? and 2) why did a storm form today? More later.
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