Storm Art

[lavamat_jon]

Whilst outside in the garden yesterday taking pictures of a Bobload on the line (which will later be submitted to the Bobload thread), I managed to catch stormclouds forming more or less instantly.

This first picture was taken at about 3.20 or 3.25pm:

 

[lavamat_jon]

A few minutes later, at about 3.30pm (and after hurrying to get the washing in!) this picture was taken:

 

[lavamat_jon]

I took this photo at 3.35pm, out of my bedroom window. As you can see it became very dark and all the streetlamps had turned on. LAter on in the storm, the street flash flooded, a house down the road from us was struck by lightning, and the barbeque we planned for relatives yesterday evening was done using the oven!!!

Hope everyone else likes these pictures, I find them very arty & storms and severe weather are another interest of mine. (I'm one of the few crazy people who would love to see a tornado and go storm chasing!)

Jon

 

[tolivac]

WOW!! You get some rather feirce storms out there!

 

[perc-o-prince]

(I'm one of the few crazy people who would love to see a

Jon,

You're not alone. Severe weather fascinates me as well. I would love to see a tornado but only one that didn't do harm to people such as one that was in open land.

Great pics!!!

Rich

 

[drmitch]

Very good photography! Glad you got the laundry off the line!

 

[pulsator]

One of my mom's coworker's brothers took this picture, he's a photographer but it still amazes me that nature can look like this...

 

[westytoploader]

Very neat pictures! Thunderstorms are interesting to me as well, especially when the sky literally opens up and a HEAVY downpour of rain accompanies it! LOVE those horrendously dark skies!

Jon, those pictures remind me of how it was here yesterday as well. The weather went from good to horrible in less than an hour; one minute it was sunny and unbearably hot, and the next it was pitch-black outside, windy, and getting ready to rain. The joke goes that if you're in Texas and you don't like the way the weather is now, wait 30 minutes and it will change!

 

[gansky1]

Come to the midwest, Jon! You'll have lots of exciting weather to chase and storms to photo - maybe even a tornado will chase you!

Ask Mike (chestermikeuk) about the storm they drove back to Minneapolis through from the convention last year - quite thrilling I recall. Who wants dry underpants??

 

[jmm63]

speaking of storm art.....

We had a rare and violent storm come through Verona and Montclair NJ this past Tuesday. The damage to 100 year old trees and statley homes was bad, but no one was injured, thank God. They are calling this a "micro-burst".. concentrated hurricane force winds in a 2 mile wide path.. I'm just calling it freakin SCAREY!

This is a pic of my friend Barb's 1 year old Jaguar XJ8, she NEVER parks it where it was when a tree landed on it.

 

[jmm63]

uprooted tree on the house right across the street from me

 

[jmm63]

the house right behind us

 

[jmm63]

around the corner

 

[jmm63]

across the street from me

 

[jmm63]

street behind us

 

[jmm63]

the end of our street

 

[jmm63]

uprooted tree's.. this particular house had 3 trees completley uprooted. Thank God they all missed the house.. except for 1 corner of the garage.

 

[whirlcool]

Wow! Those pics ARE dramatic!

Thanks for posting those Jim, they really show what can happen in micro-bursts, let alone a tornado!

 

[gansky1]

WOW - nobody was hurt, power comes back on and houses and cars can be fixed but I'll bet you want to shed a big crocodile tear for the damage and loss of all those beautiful trees.

We had a "convected" snow storm in 1997 that dumped 14" of heavy, wet snow on the city in mid-October. The trees still had a full canopy of leaves on them and almost every tree in the city had major damage - you can still see the scars today.

 

[foraloysius]

Lovely pictures of those dark skies. I was in that storm after the convention too. Quite an adventure, we don't have such heavy storms overhere. Robert appeared to be quite an expert on storms, which made it even more interesting to witness it.

Jim, thanks for sharing those pictures. Although those storms are quite interesting, they can cause quite a drama.

 

[jmm63]

This part of NJ is known for its majestic trees and sadly so many of them are lost. Some of the streets looked literally like the trees blew up. AND to add insult to injury, a house 2 streets over that saw the power lines come down in its front yard with the storm on Tuesday, was hit by lighnting last night and almost burned to the ground. Its a total loss, but the people were safe. Our local fire department thought the fire was out and left the scene, only to come back to find the house engulfed in flames. Freaky things are happening here.. hopefully its done for now.

 

[user 12105]

I agree wholeheartedly Jim...we have been seeing what seems to be more violent than usual T'storms this summer. The storms here in Iselin Friday and Saturday were intense....frequent cloud to ground lightning and 70 mph windgusts...a little unnerving to say the least. Though i have not seen to much damage..thank goodness.

 

[JerseyMike]

I agree wholehartedly. We've been having freaky weather lately. A school in Newark was extensively damaged by fire after getting struck by lightning last night. Even worse, four kids in Bergen County were also struck by lightning. Sadly, two of them were killed. (See link below) ENOUGH ALREADY. This is getting scary.

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php...FeXk2OTY1NzEwJnlyaXJ5N2Y3MTdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5Mg==

 

[lavamat_jon]

To all you guys in NJ...

that is pretty tragic stuff that's happening there! It goes to show that, as beautiful as mother nature can be when thunderstorms are around you can never underestimate her power. A house down the road us was struck by lightning on the TV aerial yesterday in the same storm I photographed, although thankfully the only damage done was a fried TV - however a few weeks ago here in the UK in a severe thunderstorm a whole row of terraced housing in Kent was ravaged by fire from one lightning bolt. Good luck to everybody in the affected regions, and wishing that no more damage is done - and you guys take care.

Jon

 

[JerseyMike]

Thanks, Jon.

Here's a link to some pics of the school that caught fire.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/photo...ew_gallery.cgi/njo/view_gallery.ata?g_id=7346

 

[user 12105]

Thanks Jon for the kind words. I have resect for thunderstorms with a sense of fear also. I can only imagine what it must be like in the mid-west and "tornado alley". Thank goodness we do not see much in the way of Tornadic storms here...though they also seem to be on the increase..scary.

 

[compwhiz128]

Wow, that looks like Highline! (my school)

 

[Unimatic1140]

YAY for the Weather

These storm pictures are great; it is unfortunate about the damage to some of the beautiful trees though. I love watching the seasons the change and summertime is great for storms. I've always been a fascinated by the weather and I would never be happy living in a place without dramatic seasonal changes. Normally we get fierce thunderstorms here in Minnesota in the spring and summer, but this year so far we've seen very few as we are having an unusually dry summer. With the exception of a couple of days, it’s one of the least humid summers I can remember in a long time. Unfortunately the grass is not as lush and green as it should be in mid summer because we could really use some rain. Bring on the storms.

 

[bajaespuma]

Hey Britons!

I've heard that there are actually a lot more tornadoes in the UK than anyone in the US had been aware of. Is this true?

 

[gansky1]

We've been lucky this year for tornadic and frequency of severe storms, it's been fairly quiet. I agree, these scary storms are increasing in intensity and frequency - global warming experts are saying that it will likely get worse in the next ten years and may be at a point of no return if drastic measures aren't taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions soon. Other scientists fear that we may have already passed the tipping point and it's too late to curb major climate shifts.

A hybrid car is looking better and better all the time but the average American uses approximately 20 pounds of coal per day to generate energy... We have a long way to go!