[paul.fr]

Lightning over Brisbane

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http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25199663-5018248,00.html

14,000 lightning strikes in storm - this is how they count them

March 17, 2009 11:35am

THE state's southeast recorded 82 lightning strikes every minute during Monday night's storm as 14,000 bolts lit up the sky.

The spectacular light show also resulted in 39 strokes per minute in Brisbane reported by Global Positioning and Tracking System (GPATs), an Australian company which provides lightning tracking devices and applications to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Duncan McDonald, GPAT's engineer and software developer, said the state-of-the-art system can detect the time and position of lightning under a second after it strikes.

"We have 32 lightning detection receivers around Australia, each with GPS installed in them so we know exactly where and when lightning hits," Mr McDonald said.

When lightning strikes, an electromagnetic wavefront propagates from where it hits.

The receiver catches the wavefront and calculates when it strikes.

"If at least two receivers detect the same strike, it can work out from the time of arrival where the lightning struck," he said.

Mr McDonald said lightning is so sporadic that it is difficult to calculate an average for the number of strokes per storm, even over a period of 10 years.

Along with power and insurance companies, which employ the data for research and insurance claims, mining companies are GPAT's main clients using the information collected for safety measures as lightning can cause explosions if it hits the wrong place.

The Bureau of Meteorology also is using the information collected by GPATs for further investigation on whether some of the Victorian bushfires were a result lightning strikes or arson.

Monday's severe weather with gusting winds up to 80km/h brought down trees and powerlines leaving around 17, 000 homes and businesses without power.

The Lockyer Valley, Brisbane Valley, Ipswich and surrounds and parts of the Gold Coast and hinterland were the worst hit areas.

Energex crews had restored power to more than 13,000 homes and businesses last night with the rest being reconnected at about 6.30am.

The thunderstorms should result in a slight increase in dam levels for Brisbane after 47mm fell in the Wivenhoe catchment area.

Storms lash south east - photo gallery
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/gallery/0,23816,5037952-17382,00.html

Spectacular lightning storms - gallery
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/gallery/0,22056,5029621-5010140,00.html#

[paul.fr]

#  Oldest known photograph of a tornado.
# Photo date : August 28, 1884.
# Location : 22 miles southwest of Howard, South Dakota.
# Source : National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Photo Library. Image ID: wea00206, Historic NWS Collection. Found at http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/historic/nws/wea00206.htm

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[112inky]

Sundog?! Never heard of that before. Interesting! Thanks for that Neil and the links 
 
it's very new to me

[paul.fr]

[norcalclimber]

Picture I took from the front deck of my house looking east at part of the Sierra Nevada mountain range:
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[norcalclimber]

Another cloud picture from my front deck:
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[theonlinestuff]

cool stuff

now em also soon going to post photos

[norcalclimber]

Another picture of clouds I took yesterday: [ Invalid Attachment ]

[norcalclimber]

More of my favorite new pics from the new camera

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[tartanthing]

Noctilucent Clouds?
I'm hoping someone can verify these pics as Noctilucent Clouds. I took them 3/7/11 at 3am, facing north in glasgow (geotagged via picasa!). I couldn't get any foreground reference points because of light pollution, but the first pic has an orange glow at the bottom from a nearby street light. They appear as the camera took them, but in reality they were a lot brighter, I am fiddling about with colour levels to try and get it closer to how it appeared.
newbielink:https://picasaweb.google.com/tartanthing/NoctilucentClouds?authkey=Gv1sRgCLzh7LHj7POH2QE [nonactive]






Just for fun here's a couple of other pics of a frosty morning on the road to Milford Sound in NZ that I took, neither of them have been adjusted.
newbielink:https://picasaweb.google.com/tartanthing/MilfordRoad?authkey=Gv1sRgCM3KuK_f3tC2cQ [nonactive]



hope the links work, if not let me know!

[Airthumbs]

Not to be left out from the sunset pics  []

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[Karen W.]

Another cloud picture from my front deck:
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These are really beautiful....remind me of home for sure.....

[Karen W.]

Not to be left out from the sunset pics  []

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Lovely sunset Airthumbs!

[Ponner]

Hey,

Just wrote an article on the most extreme forces that nature can throw at us, has some pretty extreme weather on it!

It's here;
newbielink:http://funzim.com/10-examples-demonstrating-the-immense-power-of-nature/ [nonactive]

Quick example one...


Hope you enjoy

[WarnerGet]

Very reasoned.

The Earth and its climate is changing, it always has and will continue.

[AnnaScott]

I know a place on earth where there are few cataclysms and constantly a lot of sun. It rains relatively rarely and only Atlantic winds.

[Slickscientist]

Hi,
I found a picture of a storm that happened 3 years ag over where I live. I got it from the Guardian.
Enjoy!