Lightning is Mother Nature’s firestarter, but the green verdant grasses in the foreground of this photo snapped by WyoFile staffer Dan Kenah aren’t likely to be lit ablaze. 

Those conditions have given wildland firefighters a reprieve — and an opportunity to gaze at thunderstorms like this one with awe, instead of angst. 

Luke Arends, a National Weather Service meteorologist who forecasts for Sheridan County, said he hadn’t heard of any lightning-lit wildfires so far this year, at least within the southern reaches of his district.   

“If there was any, the rain associated with the thunderstorm could have put it out right away,” Arends said. 

Kenah captured this distant lightning bolt on July 28 in the Soldier Ridge area.

Mike Koshmrl reports on Wyoming's wildlife and natural resources. Prior to joining WyoFile, he spent nearly a decade covering the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s wild places and creatures for the Jackson...

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