BajaNomad - Lightning Today

Lightning Today

oladulce - 8-19-2010 at 03:40 PM

A thunderstorm passed over us around noon today and my husband decided to video the energy from the "safety" of our front porch. The video was fun to watch and pretty impressive, and he captured a roll of thunder that I remember feeling in my bones when it happened.

But it wasn't until we made some still shots from the video that we saw where some of the bolts went.

(sorry about the quality of the photos)

There was ground shaking and a loud CRACK after this bolt, as it hit smack-dab on my neighbor's trailer. We can't figure out what the horizontal separation in the photo is but the video camera must have captured a change in the electrical activity since the lightning bolt changed shape.

It might be an illusion because I think this one hit the water in the bay, but it sure looks like it zapped the other trailer on the lot next door!

This one definitely hit the water. A few pangas were returning from fishing and they had to drive right past this spot.

Bob and Susan - 8-19-2010 at 03:45 PM

holy cow

notice how things like this are attracted to trailers

Juan del Rio - 8-19-2010 at 03:59 PM

Those are awesome photos. Thanks for sharing!

shari - 8-19-2010 at 04:05 PM

Whoa...those are waaaaay cool pics!! There is a bit of rolling thunder here now and clouds moving in too. Did it rain there? It doesnt look like any rain is left in the clouds on the satellite but it sure would be nice to get a sprinkle.

Lightning Rod

lookingandbuying - 8-19-2010 at 04:06 PM

If I lived in that area I would definately set-up a grounded lightning rod on the place. Otherwise you could get fried real quick.

oladulce - 8-19-2010 at 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by shari
Whoa...those are waaaaay cool pics!! There is a bit of rolling thunder here now and clouds moving in too. Did it rain there? It doesnt look like any rain is left in the clouds on the satellite but it sure would be nice to get a sprinkle.

Our weather gizmo says it rained .15" today Shari. It was around 1 pm and lasted about 20 minutes and was enough to give the plants a good soak.

shari - 8-19-2010 at 04:24 PM

How lovely...hope we get a sprinkle so we can have pithaya margaritas in september!!

Paulina - 8-19-2010 at 04:29 PM

Very cool pics!

acadist - 8-19-2010 at 06:29 PM

Very cool pics, was on the water this morning out of Los Arenas and saw the storm, with lightning, coming. Got off the water for about an hour than had awesome fishing.

Bob H - 8-19-2010 at 06:47 PM

HOLY COW! Unreal photos.

That first pic...

Mexray - 8-20-2010 at 01:00 AM

...looks like you caught the video image as it was changing, half way - as the 'bolt' was diminishing at the bottom...

Looks like it hit the water as well - if it had hit the trailer, it most likely would have blown a hole in it or charred the alum skin to some degree - yikes!

Nice pics!

In the early 90's, I crewed on a 65 ft, alum catamaran, power boat coming up Central America's west coast...we were north of Costa Rica, it was early July (ugh!) and we were chasing around trying to keep away from the many storm cells in the area - several were producing spectacular lighting discharges, and we seemed to be the 'tallest' object around, and made entirely of metal, as well! :wow:

I kept waiting for the the hair on the back of my neck to get that 'statically' feeling I'm told you get just before a lightening strike! We were lucky, I guess, and had the power and speed to keep away from the more active cells, but we did get a through fresh water rinse from a couple of em' :biggrin:

Ray

Eli - 8-20-2010 at 09:25 AM

Oladulce, great pictures!

Mexray, good story!

windgrrl - 8-20-2010 at 09:30 AM

Spectacular images!

DianaT - 8-20-2010 at 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mexray

I kept waiting for the the hair on the back of my neck to get that 'statically' feeling I'm told you get just before a lightening strike! We were lucky, I guess, and had the power and speed to keep away from the more active cells, but we did get a through fresh water rinse from a couple of em' :biggrin:

Ray

First of all, those pictures are FANTASTIC-- really great--but looks closer than I want to be. Then again, to capture those photos is amazing. What a beautiful light show. Thanks.

Ray, my son says that when it is real close, your hair does stand on end. He was rock climbing in Colorado a number years ago. They knew one of the typical afternoon storms was coming, but they were not real concerned. But while they were standing on the summit, the lightening started and he said his hair, which is quite long, literally did stand straight up. Needless to say, they headed down for shelter in a hurry.

Oladulce, thanks again---just really enjoy looking at those.

vandenberg - 8-20-2010 at 10:39 AM

Oladulce.
Beautiful images.
Is it possible that the intensity of the light changed halfway through your shooting the picture, causing the camera to adjust during the shot ? Probably a dumb question on my part, but definitely not my first one. :biggrin:

Lightning Streamers

oladulce - 8-20-2010 at 11:46 AM

I've been refreshing my memory about lightning and came upon this photo which shows a couple of "streamers"- the positively charged ions that come up from below the negative activity in a thunderstorm and trigger a lightning discharge.

From this photo and the website it came from, I think BigWooo caught a "streamer" in the first photo I posted which is the skinny bolt below the big one. We were thinking that the horizontal line in #1 was a camera thing, but it's interesting that this photo has the same line where the streamer meets the "Leader" bolt.

He jokingly said "hey maybe I got a shot of Ions!" Hmmm.... interesting stuff.

Mexray, the neighbor's trailer appears intact but we're going to take a ladder over there later and check out the roof just for fun. More "streamer" info I found says "There are a number of factors which influence how the streamers form. They tend to form from metal or electrically conductive objects more easily than from other objects, and they tend to form from high objects more easily than from low objects..."

Russ - 8-20-2010 at 12:19 PM

A thought.... if the trailer is on it's tires and the tongue is held up or sitting on a block of wood then I don't think Lightning would strike it. But if the tongue is on concrete blocks they would serve as a ground for the whole rig. There should be a mark of some sort where the tongue make contact with the block or grounding material. ????? Just a thought & question.

DianaT - 8-20-2010 at 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by oladulce

From this photo and the website it came from, I think BigWooo caught a "streamer" in the first photo I posted which is the skinny bolt below the big one. We were thinking that the horizontal line in #1 was a camera thing, but it's interesting that this photo has the same line where the streamer meets the "Leader" bolt.

Curious, did the website say where that photo was taken---it looks like it could be the Imperial Beach Pier--if so, it was way too close to our other home!

El Camote - 8-20-2010 at 08:45 PM

Ola, impressive pics! What were you using to make still pics from video?

BigWooo - 8-21-2010 at 07:43 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by El Camote
Ola, impressive pics! What were you using to make still pics from video?

For this shot I used I-Movie (apple). For anyone that uses I-Move, this is how I did it:

To get a decent picture you have to start with hi-def video. Download the video into I- movie. Once that's done, make a "new project", then drag the video clip that contains the frame(s) you want to make a still of into the project library.

Next, click the movie clip that you put into the project library to highlight it, now click "share", then "export using Quicktime". A pop up window will open. Now open the "export" tab toward the bottom of the pop up window. Choose "movie to image sequence". Pick a file to export the sequence to, then click "Save".

Each frame of the video clip will be exported to that file as an individual .jpg image file (depending on the length of the clip, there will be A LOT of individual stills). There will be many extra pictures you don't need, but you can pick the best frames and delete the rest. The size of the individual photos wind up being 663x428 pixels with pretty good resolution.

If you have a PC, you can use Sony Vegas. For that all you need to do is put the cursor over the frame you want to make a still of, then click the little camera icon in the bottom right window. The frame will be exported to the file you choose as a .jpg image.

jahImpala3 - 8-22-2010 at 06:13 PM

Great photos! Lightning is crazy!

BajaBlanca - 8-23-2010 at 11:14 AM

I had a babysitter for my kids whose brother died after being fried by lightning on a beach in Rio. First and only story I heard of such a thing happening.

Truly remarkable pics - thanks for sharing !!