Monday Night Football Lightning Delay -- In Los Angeles -- In a Dome

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Lightning has been occurring over the greater Los Angeles area this evening which has caused a 45 minute delay in the kickoff of Monday Night Football. The above photo was captured by ESPN.

At 5:35p PDT (7:35pm CDT), there was a new area of lightning south of the stadium (blue dot) moving 
northwest. So, there may be an additional delay in the scheduled 5:50pm kickoff. 

Still it is odd that rare thunderstorms in the Southland are causing this delay in a domed stadium that has one open area. 

The ESPN crew (motto: "I'm not a meteorologist but I play one on TV) said, "Lightning can't go sideways." Oops. 
They really should have a meteorologist or commercial weather company on retainer.


UPDATE: Another meteorologist agrees.

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