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All Images Copyright Terry Pallister
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| It had been 10
days since the last storm on August 10. The very unusual intense
heat continued. A cluster of thunderstorms had developed to the NE
over SW Mississippi and drifted SW toward New Orleans in the early evening
over a narrow strip of land that separates Lake Pontchartrain from the
Gulf waters to the east. Had they drifted more over water they might
has weakened before reaching me. I was a little late getting out
to set up about 7:30 pm. The storms were still far enough away, but
the lightning was almost entirely back in the rain area. Thunder
was not particularly frequent. I was disappointed as the rains finally
came in. I hadn't gotten any strikes on tape.
About 8 pm winds began picking up just in advance of the rain. I was on the east balcony. As the winds and rain increased, I finally decided to put the camcorders in the bag and hope to get some lightning later once the winds died down. AND THEN IT HAPPENED! A powerful downburst began right on top of the airport with winds blowing at just enough of an angle to keep the worst from blowing in on me. An awesome hollow roar of the wind accompanied the rush or air. Winds peaked at 78 mph in the open, but they had to be near 90 mph as they funneled between the building I was on and one next to it just a short distance away. Soon after the downburst began I heard a small Cessna plane parked just 60 feet from me start to rock back and forth. It did that 5 or 6 times before the winds blasted across it so strongly that they flipped the aircraft over (see the top picture above). It sounded like a cheap child's toy when it went over as Nature's fury showed how much stronger She is than mankind and manmade things. If the winds had blown at an angle just a bit more from the ENE instead of E to ESE, I would have been in serious trouble. There are 2 full size picnic tables on the balcony that the winds would easily have lifted and thrown at me if the air had blown directly into the balcony area. The door to get inside and out of harm's way was locked, so I was trapped like a rat. I was just plain lucky to escape serious injury or worse. The downburst lasted for 5 to 10 minutes. All power at the airport was knocked out. Even the backup generators were knocked out as well. So, the entire airport and airfield was totally dark. Each time the winds seemed to ease up they would come back in strong again and again. I live only 2500 feet from the airport. I expected to see all sorts of debris blown down by the storm. However, when I got home there was hardly an evidence of the high winds. So, this means the downburst was just a few hundred feet away from my home. Very odd indeed. During the downburst there was very little lightning or thunder. After the storm moved away out into Lake Pontchartrain, there were just a few visible bolts to see. It was quite a while after the last burst of wind before I dared to set up again. I was quite dazed by the rare event downburst. Once I did set up again I only got 2 strikes, one with each camcorder. The first 2 pictures above were of one strike that hit only 1.1 miles away to the NW at 9:09 pm. The last shot was a crawler at 9:33 facing north. This was the second of 6 storms in 22 days where I ended up in unacceptable danger. |
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| The very next
night after the "downburst nightmare" storm, I was to be placed in unacceptable
danger once again by yet another very rare event storm for my part of New
Orleans. Before midnight I noticed cells and mini-clusters on radar
developing off to the east over the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
This is not unusual in hot summers. However, they kept developing
westward and began popping up over the marshes to my east. A weak
upper air feature must have occurred to allow this to happen so late at
night. About 2:30 am I could see flashes of lightning getting close
enough for me to go set up. The action was off to the E and ESE of
me so that I had to go across to the other side of the airfield to set
up in the open. Lightning was flashing, but no visible streaks.
Thunder was faint at best, so the storm was at least 8 miles off.
A slight breeze from the outflow of the storm was the only wind.
A little after 3 am I noticed some low clouds moving in from the storm.
I thought the clouds were just typical ones from the storm's outflow.
By 3:10 I could hear a few closer booms, but they were still far off.
I wisely put the still camera and one camcorder in the car, just in case
things should change. At 3:13 I got the unexpected shock of a first
bolt from a new cell developing right on top of me. It struck dead
center in from of me about 1200 feet away. I waited for the thunder
to completely end before grabbing the last camcorder and getting out of
there as fast as I could.
The 6 shots above are from different frames of this strike. The first frame of the strike was a white out, so I missed the best picture with all the branches. Still, what I got is terrific. Note the left channel just above the ground in the first two pictures. Once the strike was established, only one main channel became the true connection to the ground. Why did I almost get caught by this developing thunderstorm cell? Well, I can count on one hand the number of storms that have developed in my part of New Orleans after dark in the summer. After midnight I can recall none at all in over 30 years. Night storms in the entire New Orleans are are unusual in the summer, and almost all die out before midnight. Many of the night storms have developed somewhere else and drifted in. So, this was a truly rare event. The best advice to everyone who chases storms is to "never say never." So, this made the third of 6 storms in 22 days that I ended up in unacceptable danger. |
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| I rushed to the
main building so that I could set up on the east balcony. There were
no more close strikes while the storm continued to build up. Rains
began falling. By 3:30 it was coming down in buckets and a succession
of close bolts struck for several minutes. For the second night in
a row all power on the airfield was knocked out. A couple of bolts
hit on the airfield, as seen above. At least I am safe on the balcony,
so I didn't have the fear as I did when I was out in the open for the 3:13
bolt. Within 5 minutes the lightning action drifted slowly to the
WNW out into Lake Pontchartrain.
The first row of 3 pictures above are of a bolt striking the airfield about 1500 feet away in the grass. Note the clear ground contact point in the last 2 pictures where you can see a bright white ball of light. No, this is not ball lightning, just the ground contact point. The second row of 2 pictures above are from a strike that was just on the edge of the camcorder's view. It was super close, only a couple of hundred feet away at the most. Notice the blotchy appearance to the right of the bolt. I don't know what the explanation for this is. It is not raindrops for sure. This is the only time this has ever happened. Strong winds powered in as well from the ESE just as they had the night before when the plane was flipped over. During the afternoon crews had removed all but the 2 wings of the aircraft. As the winds picked up to about 50 mph, the gusts lifted the 2 wings and slid them across the concrete to the edge of the grass near where the bolt on the airfield struck in the second row of pictures above. |
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| About 7 or 8
minutes later the winds died off and the rain had nearly stopped as the
storm drifted WNW out into the lake. The lightning had become frequent
with a mixture of plain flashes in the clouds and rain, as well as some
nice visible bolts. From 3:42 until 4:11 am I got a lot of pictures
as seen above with both camcorders. The bolts ranged from 4 to 7
miles away.
I fumbled in the dark to try to load a new roll of film in the still camera. After quite a while I did get the camera ready. Because there was so much flashing before any good bolts, all the slides turned out overexposed locking. All in all, quite a night. And for the second night in a row I was quite thankful that nothing bad happened to me. |
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| After the wild action the night before, it was odd that there would be an afternoon storm, but there was. It didn't last long. I got these 2 shots facing NW over Lake Pontchartrain between 2:30 and 2:35 pm. The first was 5.2 miles away and the second 4 miles off. |
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| Once again the intense summer heat led to unusual night thunderstorm activity. I was a little late coming out to set up for the first of two thunderstorms on this night. I only managed to get the 3 shots above about 10:05 pm facing NW over Lake Pontchartrain. The strikes to the water were 8 to 9 miles away. These rather distant bolts appear slightly reddish/brownish because of the air polution. |
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| After coming
home for a short time, I had to rush back out again about 11:30 pm, as
yet a second storm was developing to the E and SE. There I was having
to set up in the open again. There was not much cloud to ground lightning.
Once in a while there was a partial crawler above me.
At 11:53 a big crawler sprayed overhead with a big thick bolt to the ground that did not have any return strokes. It was one long lasting sustained bolt that gradually dissolved into beads as it faded away. It was bright and spectacular looking, as seen on the first row above. The thunder from the bolt was very weak and pathetic sounding even though it struck only 3.2 miles to the SE. The thunder from the crawler was more impressive. After that I only got a few pictures as seen on the bottom row above between 11:57 pm and 12:31 am. The second one was about 3 miles away and the others 8 miles away. The last 2 pictures are of the one last strike of the night. |