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All Images Copyright Terry Pallister
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| This was the first day I had the digital camcorder. During the afternoon clouds were building out over Lake Pontchartrain to the N and NW as a cold front approached. I set up and waited. First, I was treated to 2 distant waterspouts (see Other Weather Gallery - Waterspouts for pix of them). There wasn't a lot of lightning as the storms moved by, but I did get the shot above about 4:20 pm. This strike was just 0.6 miles away overlooking the airfield to the NNW. The sound quality of the thunder was quite good with the Sony VX1000 camcorder. |
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| A late night large thunderstorm cell had formed and remained stationary for several hours about 40 miles SW of me, near Houma. Finally I saw a bright flash from inside. It was followed by a loud boom that shook everything about 30 seconds later. So, I took my camera out into the parking lot for its first night action. After seeing a beautiful intracloud flash, I aimed the camera up and a couple of minutes later I was rewarded with this spectacular anvil crawler as it shot across the sky. Note that the cloud where the main branch starts looks like a dragon with the lightning shooting right out of its mouth! The time was 4:25 am. |
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| This storm formed
about 5:30 pm on the front side of the Lakefront Airport. The first
shot was 2 miles away facing SSW toward downtown New Orleans. The
storm moved NNE over the airport, so I moved to the other side, and up
to the second floor balcony where it is quite safe.
The second shot is entitled "Bird Killed." When you look at this one full size you can see a small darker spot a little below and to the left of the center of the picture. This is the bird that had already been killed and was falling to the ground. What is so interesting about this is that no visible lightning ever touched the bird. It had taken off from the ground and leveled off. Suddenly, it began falling straight down exactly 1 second before the visible lightning occurred. The strike was just 0.4 miles from me (about 2,000 feet). The bird was only about 200 feet from me, well away from the main strike. None of the lightning's branches are evident near the bird either. Airport people advised me that there is no heavy duty electrical wiring in that area. Obviously the electric field above the ground increased more than enough to kill the bird. This is very worth noting as a personal safety warning. One does not have to be struck directly by a lightning bolt to be killed or seriously injured. Lightning can travel through the ground for some distance. As seen in the case of the bird, substantial charge can occur in the air away from the main bolt and the branches to cause one to receive a serious shock with possible permanent injuries. |
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| The very next afternoon a storm formed NE of the airport and drifted SW toward me, but weakened a great deal as it approached. These strikes were about 3 miles away a few minutes before 2 pm. The active period of lightning in many tropical thunderstorms is rather short, 10 to 15 minutes. If one is not there when it gets started you may not have time to get to a spot and set up. |
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| A thundershower with only a little lightning. However, this shot made it worthwhile, striking 0.5 miles away to the NW at 3:15 pm. Note the nice reflection in the standing water on the runway. |
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| This storm was just beyond downtown New Orleans to the SSW. I had to change my location to a spot in the open along the Industrial Canal less than a mile from the Lakefront Airport. The strike above about 12:30 pm was 3 miles away |
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| The morning storm lasted only a short time from 10:35 to 10:40 am by the time I got set up. It was over me and just to the NE. The first 2 pix are from the same strike just 0.7 miles away. The last 2 were 1.8 miles off. |
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| Not long after I had gone home another storm formed. It lasted longer, from 1:25 to 2:10 pm. It started off to the WNW with a strike only a mile away. The other two were 3 to 4 miles away to the NE. |
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| A special day indeed! It featured a late afternoon storm between NE and E that I taped from 5:30 to 6 pm. At first I zoomed in on the lightning that was 6 to 7 miles away. Several shots show Bally's Casino floating gambling boat in the middle of the pictures. The strikes were far beyond it. I decided to zoom in more to hopefully get better results. As soon as I did a big strike occurred just 0.8 miles away with a loud bang. I didn't realize I got such a great shot until I saw the tape later. A light rain had begun falling from the anvil that was spreading back over the airport. The sun came out and soon a rainbow formed. I sacrificed a number of good shots off more to the right so that I could hopefully get some with the rainbow. The sacrifice was worth it. Quite a treat. |
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| A rather inactive and weak thunderstorm with infrequent lightning. This one shot at 1:30 pm was the only one good enough to include here, looking SE from the front of the airport. |
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| Early this Sunday afternoon, I heard thunder from a storm to the SSE. I rushed out to the airport, but in that 10 minutes the cell fizzled. But, a big black cloud was building right over me. I rushed to the other side and up to the second floor balcony. Lightning started before I could finish setting up. When I did start taping the strikes we mostly in a different direction. I did get a couple of shots, but I was disappointed. The storm lasted from 3:30 to 4 pm. The first shot was very brilliant with a very thick appearance, striking on the far north edge of the airfield just beyond a row of hangers. The second is the next frame of the same strike, without the thick appearance. The last shot is facing NW out over the Lake and struck just 0.6 miles away. |
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| After the earlier storms, cells kept forming further away. About 5:30 pm a dark cloud was forming out over the Lake just to the NNW. I rushed back, but no lightning occurred. Off to the ENE a distant storm was weakening, but still had a few good strikes visible. So, aimed over toward it and was finally rewarded with 2 nice shots between 6:35 and 6:40 pm. |