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All Images Copyright Terry Pallister
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The first year in the 2000's brought strange and unusual storm patterns, and storms themselves. The year was the driest in city history and began dull. June and November had about 12 inches of rain each and provided 2/3 of the year's rain. But the best storms were to be saved until the latter part of the summer, and with a big finale in early October. Intense heat sent the temperatures to a new city high of 103°F, and the most number of days with 100°F and above in a season. This heat led to unusual thunderstorm development that put me in unexpected danger on several occasions. Two camcorders are better than one??? Well, it would seem so, but it often did not work out that way. Sometimes it worked out great. Yet there were many times when having two complicated things. Sometimes it cost me shots during the set up of the camcorders. Another problem operating two comes when the weather gets wild, windy, and pelting rains come down. Getting them protected can be an adventure when things suddenly turn ugly. |
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| An approaching strong cold front set off some activity. I set up on the backside of the airport about 10:15 pm. Cells were moving rapidly NE along the line of storms. Only one cell produced any lightning about 8 to 10 miles away from me to the NW. I only got the one shot above at 10:30 pm. I spent more effort trying out my new still camera and got a few shots as shown in Gallery S-2. |
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| My first April
lightning with the digital camcorder. The season looked like it was
getting a good and early start. However, this would be the last until
June.
I looked outside about 3:45 pm as storms were approaching with a cold front. I saw lightning off to the WNW and rushed to get my equipment. I missed some action, but still got shots with both camcorders. The main success was with the newer camcorder shooting toward the NW out over Lake Pontchartrain. Those strikes were 5 to 8 miles away striking the water between 3:57 and 4:03. Since most of the lightning was concentrated in one area of one cell, I decided to aim the other camcorder more to the left after hearing a closer boom to the west. At 3:59 I got the one nice bolt above with Camcorder 1 as the bolt struck 2.8 miles away to the WNW. There wasn't much else that happened. All cells race NE at 30+ mph and were gone in just a few minutes. |
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| The first storm during the very wet month of June only produced one bolt of lightning. I went to the other end of the airfield to try to shoot some action to the ESE, but it fizzled. A cell over Lake Pontchartrain to the NNW gave me the only strike above at 1:43 pm, about 4 miles away. The rest of the lightning was weak looking or back in the rainshield. A rather disappointing day. For the next 9 days there were a number of storms, but almost all of the lightning was buried in the rainshield. I missed a couple of bolts in some of the storms that struck in another direction. The season was not getting off to a good start at all. Very frustrating. |
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| Another frustrating storm. Only one so-so bolt at 1:19 pm about 5 miles away facing NNE over Lake Pontchartrain. |
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| Frustration really peaked as I spent over 5 hours trying and trying on this day and into the night. Heavy downpours, but not too much lightning. What there was occurred in the rainshield. Super high humidity and hungry mosquitoes. My one reward came at 9:41 pm when I was at the other end of the airfield. This bolt was a sharp positive flash from near the top of the storm clouds, striking about 5 miles away to the SE. A resounding boom followed about 25 seconds later. |
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| The very next day had me out trying once again. More heavy downpours. I set up on the balcony for the first storm about 10:35 am as the rains approached. Thunder and lightning were infrequent. Most activity was back in the rainshield once again. But there was one good bolt at 10:43 about 5 miles looking toward the NW out over Lake Pontchartrain. |
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| The afternoon brought yet another storm, so I went back up on the balcony to see if anything would be better. I waited and recorded off and on for about 30 minutes and got nothing. Then the cell developed a brief spell of some very close strikes. At 2:13 and 2:27 pm I got the two nice bolts above during two short periods when the rain let up enough to capture these nice shots. The first was 1 mile away and the second 0.7 miles. |
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| A better day. A storm began developing a little before 3:30 pm. Lightning started striking NW out over Lake Pontchartrain as seen on the first row above. The cell moved right in toward me and the wind picked up somewhat. The rain began and blew in on me. I kept recording as long as I could. Some raindrops hit one camcorder. The last 3 pictures on the second row above had water drops on the lens. Good friend Mike Pendergast came to the rescue once again and removed the drops from the pictures to make them look so much better. The shots above occurred between 3:33 and 3:53, and all struck between 0.8 and 2.5 miles away. There were other closer strikes out of the camera's view as the storm moved overhead and past. |
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| Storms began developing a little before 2 pm, but not much happened for quite a while. My patience was finally rewarded about 45 minutes later. Both camcorders got some nice shots. There was action to the NE, N, and then NW out over the lake. The bolts above were taken between 2:37 and 2:58 pm, and struck the water between 5 and 7 miles away. |
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| Evening brought yet another storm, but there wasn't much lightning. Again, most was in the rainshield. But there was one strike with two bolts that made the effort worth it all. I was very lucky to get the two bolts, one with each camcorder. Both bolts above were single return stroke strikes. This happened at 7:52 pm and they were about 7.5 miles away. Quite a treat! |