The Fiercest Lightning Storm

December 31st, 2006 · 10 Comments

I was sorting through my digital photos/videos and came across an old video of a storm. We’ve all seen lightning storms in person or on TV - most of them show a couple of lightning bolts streaking down from the sky or the occasional flash of lightning in the clouds. They all look impressive (and they are).

However, on the 2nd April 2005, the fiercest lightning storm I have ever seen (in person, and on TV) was unleashed across the city of Melbourne, Australia. It lasted for two hours during which the sky flashed continuously with lightning and the boom of thunder was never-ending. Sounds like an exaggeration? Well check out the short video I managed to capture.

What is impressive is not the streaks of lightning (which you unfortunately can’t see from where I took the video), but the frequency of the flashes. The constant roar you hear in the video is the constant rolling boom of thunder. The video goes for 50 seconds - imagine 2 hours of this.

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Tags: Commentary

10 responses so far ↓

Mike // Dec 31, 2006 at 4:37 pm

Wow. I’d imagine sleeping would be a luxury. That annoyed me for the 50 seconds alone. I guess I would just put on the iPod and try to drown out the sound. Not sure that would work though ;-).
Adam // Jan 1, 2007 at 6:15 am

Wow! I love thunderstorms but that would be tedious….
Paul // Jan 14, 2007 at 11:34 am

I thought illumination of sky and earth on that level once every ten seconds was amazing, but it’s nothing compared to this.
Ruth // Jan 15, 2007 at 1:15 am

DOES THIS REMIND YOU OF THE POWER GOD HAS.
SOMETIMES WE NEED A WAKE UP
CALL.
pat // Jan 15, 2007 at 1:01 pm

that sounds like a washing machiene. preety sure the noise is fake. you can hear the real sound under the roar

Pat, I can assure you it’s real (not that I can do anything to prove it). If the sound is poor, i can only blame my cheap digital camera and that the mic was probably overloading due to the amount of noise/volume.
bob // Jan 15, 2007 at 4:07 pm

Uhmmm…No, it doesn’t. I don’t see any logical reason to believe that a “supernatural being” had anything to do with this. Care to explain…logically?
Jack // Jan 15, 2007 at 11:24 pm

God’s power does not need CAPS to bring his message. Why do you?

Besides… visit your physics class more often and read about how lightning is created.
James // Jan 16, 2007 at 1:38 am

You ain’t seen nothing, come live in Johannesburg.
Maarten Brandt // Feb 22, 2007 at 10:17 pm

Great! This is my ultimate wish, to experience such a storm. How were the waether-conditions and - forecasts leading to this spectecular long lasting and intens electric storm? And what about the precipitation and (eventually) hail?

Best wishes

Maarten
Jina // Apr 18, 2007 at 10:49 am

omg