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All Images Copyright Terry Pallister
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| Just a few days
after I received the new camcorder a storm developed after dark out over
Lake Pontchartrain to the NW. I shot video from 9:45 pm to midnight.
There were not all that many bolts to get, as several of the shots above
occurred in the same flash. Many flashes were back in the clouds
or rain shield. The storm remained 6 to 10 miles away, but there
were periods of gusty winds and very light rain from the anvil.
The first two bolts on the top row occurred just before 10 pm and gave a reddish purple appearance. They were about 10 miles away to the NNW. There was a long wait until nearly 11 pm before more action occurred. At 11:04 pm I heard a helicopter coming in. Just as it moved into view only 60 feet from me, a brilliant bolt struck about 5 miles away as seen on the 2nd row above. The second shot on that row is an unsmoothed digital still frame (with horizontal lines through the picture) which shows the bolt more clearly. The bolts became more elaborate with complicated paths across the sky and different strike points to the water as the storm aged. Some of the video frames are white outs because of the strong brilliance. Several of the bolts to the water had numerous return strokes that made them spectacular to watch. By 11:30 pm the storm was weakening, with just a few anvil crawlers left as seen on the last row above. |
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| I rushed out to the other end of the airport as a storm developed during the mid-afternoon, but I was a little late. There was only one strike at 3:11 pm, with 2 nice bolts striking behind Bally's Casino boat about 4.6 miles away. |
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| Thunderstorms began to develop around 3 pm off to the SSE. I shot for a while from the front of the airport and only got the first strike above at 3:10 pm about 4 miles away. The cell development expanded eastward, so I eventually moved to the other end of the airport. Strikes were hard to come by, but I did get the other two above facing SE toward the marina. Bally's Casino boat is just to the left of these two shots. The strikes were about 5 to 6 miles away. |
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| A lazy storm developed about 10 miles to the NNW over Lake Pontchartrain after dark. Most of the visible bolts only showed up coming out of the cloud base which was too far away. So, I waited and waited for two hours to hopefully get a bolt shooting out of the top of the anvil and coming down. At 9:05 pm I got the terrific shot above which was about 9 miles away. It made the wait worth it all! |
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| A storm developed to the ESE about 1:40 pm so I had to go to the other end of the airfield to shoot. It didn't last very long. The 2 shots above occurred between 1:50 and 1:57 pm about 4 miles away. |
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| The second storm began to develop about 3 pm to the WSW of the airport. Lightning struck a number of time before any rain fell from the base of the cloud. These shots occurred in just a 3 minute span and struck a little over 4 miles away. Then the rain began and the lightning ended. |
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| A busy late afternoon and evening. The first storm formed off to the ESE a little before 4:30 pm. I had to rush to the other end of the airfield to get the best view to shoot at. Between 4:30 and 5 pm I was only able to get 2 decent shots that were about 4.5 to 6 miles away. |
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| About 5:30 pm
a new storm developed almost overhead. I went up to the west balcony
to shoot in a safer place to avoid the rain as much as possible.
I could only get one good shot as seen on the left above. It was
facing WSW and struck just 1.6 miles away.
Most of the strikes were on the south side of the airport, so I moved there around 6 pm. The second shot above is facing SSE and the bolt hit 3 miles away. The bolts were partially obscured by the rain. There were others that were too washed out looking because of the rain. |
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| The storm drifted
gradually to the SE, but lightning and thunder continued. So, I waited
to see if anything of interest might happen. Most of the time when
one waits like this, nothing does happen. But once in a while one
is rewarded for patience.
After darkness had almost completely fallen, some anvil crawlers started shooting across the sky in spectacular fashion. Video stills are never as good as still camera pictures of anvil crawlers. The crawlers travel too slowly across the sky so that the video camera stills only capture a small part of the crawler on any one frame. The 3 shots above give you some idea of how neat they were to see. The second 2 are different frames from the same crawler. My co-worker and his wife were at a ball game just a couple of miles to the west. He told me that everyone in the stands went "ooh...aah" each time one of the crawlers went across the sky. The crawlers occurred between 7:20 and 7:50 pm. |
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| The final day
of the 1999 lightning season. The clouds were moving more than they
usually do in the summer months. They were streaming toward the NE.
Storms developed on the west end of the system. The first action
occurred between 3:20 and 3:40 pm. Most of the lightning was off
to the ESE, but I stayed at the front of the airport because it kept looking
like things would pop at any time.
The first shot above was facing SSE and the bolt struck about 3 miles away. The second bolt stuck really close, just 0.4 miles to the S. A loud bang startled everyone out in the parking lot. Then, I made a poor choice. Clouds were building all around with the darkest on the north side of the airport. So, I moved up to the balcony. The storm did indeed form on this side of the building, but almost all the lightning was on the south side of the building were I had been. There were lots of close strikes, but alas I didn't get anything more. All in all 1999 was a decent lightning season. It had its frustrating periods, but all years have that. There were more than enough special treats to make it a good year. |