Topic: Storms: Central Eastern NSW 4th-6th March 2007

[vrondes]

Yes, that electrical barrage from the heavens certainly delivered some eardrum rattlers on sunday night. Haven't seen such an intense and sustained barrage of lightning  since february 98. Well done to all those who did capture some strikes albeit under quite scary conditons on the night.  And Jimmy that merriwa strike is dynamite!, Cheers, Con.

[Mike]

hey James, just re that single CG photo next to the powerline tower - I've been focussing on where the CG travelled - have you noticed in the photo how the strike's path actually curves in between the lines overhead and past the tower and one part of the strike actually touches one of the powerlines?!!  Incredible how the strike did not actually branch out to earth on any other lines as it passed through them.  Interesting.

 And what's that haze at the LH side where the stroke bends towards coming to earth?  Is that accidental camera movement or  a blur on the lens or is that something else caused by the discharge?  Anyone else noticed that??  The rest of the shot is in focus - so what's that haze?

Mike

[Harley Pearman]

Hello

The Sunday night storm was brilliant. I took some 45 minutes of video film of it including one CG that hit something at the other end of Mantaka Street where I live or very close eg the railway line / tracks. There was an instantaneous explosion and piercing thunder clap that came with it. I am confident that I caught the lightning flash on film.

I saw the green glows of two transformers exploding close by to my NE. It was a very active storm and quite spectacular. I ran out of video film as the storm was dying but caught much of it.

In today's Telegraph Mirror there is a photograph of a house being struck by lightning at Malabar (A solid bolt) and there is a gallery on the Sydney Morning Herald website of some 25 photos taken from the Sunday storm by people around Sydney. There are two spectacular photos of Sydney Harbour Bridge being struck by lightning. The gallery is worth a visit at smh.com.au

Many say they did not get allot of rain. A very active cell passed overhead where I live and tracked NE. It produced a moderate to heavy shower for some 10 to 15 minutes. It produced up to 24 mm at Glenorie and 29 mm in some localities in that area. That cell was very very active at times.

Best storm of the year and even better than the one I filmed the previous weekend over Penrith.


Harley Pearman

 

 

[Mike]

Well done, Harley.  Have you got any pics to post or perhaps a portion of your video you took to post?  Did you stay in the one area or move around in front of the storm?  NSW certainly has had some very good storms that have made the headlines - even up here we've heard about them albeit all our chaos of late.  I'll check out the SMH website for a nosey.

Mike

[Harley Pearman]

Hello

I was filming from my balcony using by big camera. I am up high so I can see whats going on and easy to film. I need to do a lot of downloading something that I will have to start on probably when I get back from the USA.

Definitely an impressive storm, best I have seen since February 2 2005.


Harley Pearman

[striker92]

Hey guys,
You were all right!
Down here at shellharbour we had one of the best electrical storms ive ever seen. The intensity of strikes and the shear number was unlike anything i have ever seen, it was amazing, it takes the cake as the most electrically active storm i have ever seen. And yes we received little rain aswell. Thought id share this aswell, riding home from school there were some very weak thunder rolls on the way home. I get home and go out to see my dad who had just arrived from work when a HUGE lightning strike struck only 500 meters away, the resulting thunderclap echoed for almost a minute! What did i See!!!! 

[MrPedagogy.]

There is some scattered storm activity currently in the West of the state. I'm pretty worn down from juggling work and tripping around the countryside in the wee hours with the new camera trying to snap some of our central western storms.

The Storm I tagged last night went to Warren to my North west and promptly died so that became a non-event although looked hopeful. Loved reading the briefing room thread in WZ checking out others photos and also the photos posted here from the last week. Awesome atmospheric events over the last week.

Look forward to continuing to follow the threads and this time I'll try to snap more activity happening out here before it gets to all you guys (and gals) on the coast.

Regards,

Steve

[wol]

Here's a sound file to go with my pics from my previous post.

[Mike]

Hey there Wol. nice thunder on the audio!  You know i'm going to comment on something and you all are going to think I'm losing it, but when lightning strikes around this neck of the woods it really does sound differently to what you've downloaded.  There seems to be a long, long echo (probably the wind carrying sound) of thunder on the audio - but up here the thunder is usually abrupt, sharp and with less 'rolling'.

 I kept playing it over and over to make sure i wasn't losing my marbles, but it's just something that I did notice, and being quite honest actually, the thunder here DOES sound different!  From sharp, snapping cracks to just simply booming window rattlers - and i've heard 4 months worth thus far!

 I just haven't heard thunder up here go on and on and on like it does on your link - it could be a lot of factors involved, but i'm not getting into that!

Mike

[wol]

Yeah, I noticed the same thing.

When I was going through the audio there was never a time when I couldn't hear the thunder.
The thunder from one lightening strike took over from the previous one every time,
there was hardly a time where you could only just hear the rain.

It's not always like that down here, there was just a heck of a lot going on with this storm!

[Dave Nelson]

Wol,

    There are multiples thundedrclaps on your recording 

  its not all from the same lightning strike   
counted 3 separate events   1st loud close, 2nd and 3rd weaker more distant
and 4th another loud closer  one


cheers
Dave N

[Jeff Brislane]

Here are three images of the lightning from the storm on the 4th. I caught at least 25 bolts from this storm however a lot are  from less than ideal locations such as behind trees etc.







I could have also caught a very rare electrical phenomenon in one of my pics. I'm 75% sure so far that it is what I think it is and when i'm possitive i'll post a photo online. I caught it in a pic of a bolt that struck within 100 meters.

[vrondes]

Superb bolts you've captured there Jeff. looking forward to seeing the mystery strike. There was only one close strike near home which I photographed. Will post when I get the slides back. Cheers, Con.

[Mike]

man-o-man - they are superb shots.  I'd kill for lightning like that up here!  Storms about but nuff all electrical stuff worthy of taking. Can't wait for that mystery shot - tell us more!

Mike

[Michael Bath]

Been a bit slow to put these photos for the 5th March up !   The shelf cloud structure that Kane observed at Sawtell appears to have continued all the way up to the Queensland border. Rodney and I observed shelf cloud structure from near Grafton and all the way to Casino where this photo was taken.



Radar suggests a continuous shelf cloud structure was fairly likely covering a distance of at least 200 km.

All my pics for this day are available at the following link. First lot are taken at Whiporie, then most of the remainder near Casino:

http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2007/mb20070305.html

regards, Michael