Hardy Tropicals UK

Here is a video of a recent electrical storm that passed by Darwin.



Quite a show and as one of the most lightening prone parts of the world we get plenty of theses type of storms this time of the year. Its the start of our Wet Season now and we have had brilliant record breaking rainfall for this time of the year, had 156mm fall last night in just over an hour!!

Of course the garden is going nuts and looking very lush, the heat and humidity however are making me feel a bit wilted...

Enjoy!

Oooh nice! I tried doing similar with a storm here but using a slow motion setting on my camera. I set it up on a tripod and after 10mins or so had no lightning happen so gave up. Packed the camera etc away and the lightning started again!
Nice to see a post from you Sean!

Cheers Steve, but I should add that I neither filmed nor uploaded this video to youtube, just thought it was worth sharing. Id like to be able to do some decent lightening shots, here in Darwin is the place to do it but I lack the right equipment. One day...

Thanks for that natural firework display, Sean. Perfect timing to post it for us

Awesome sight! Where on earth does that quantity or rain go?....how come you don't flood?

Oi, where you been the last 5 months Welcome back Sean

Certainly looks impressive, wish we could have electric storms, without the risk of damaging hail.

You had 156mm rain in an hour I've had just under 383mm since 1st Jan

Tom2006 wrote:Awesome sight! Where on earth does that quantity or rain go?....how come you don't flood?

Tom we do flood! Most of the countryside is a floodplain but since Darwin is in a coastal location the water flows down the creeks into the sea quite quickly so there isnt any widespread flooding in Darwin. Having said that there are plenty of urban roads that become impassable after rain like that when creeks overflow and drains back up but it usually subsides pretty quickly. My own street has flooded many times and I remember one day when cars parked on the road started bobbing around floating down the street!

Dave Brown wrote:Oi, where you been the last 5 months Welcome back Sean

Certainly looks impressive, wish we could have electric storms, without the risk of damaging hail.

You had 156mm rain in an hour I've had just under 383mm since 1st Jan

Cheers Dave, been busy graduating uni We had hail a couple of weeks back and also with the 156mm downpour which is quite extraordinary and the first hail Ive seen in many years! As for 156mm, thats just a November record (November being the "build-up" to the wet season). The highest daily record for Darwin is 367mm in February 2011 during Cyclone Carlos, which also gave us the highest monthly rainfall record of 1110mm!

http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/ ... _All.shtml

With Darwin being one of the worlds lightening hotspot there are plenty of awesome photographic opportunities and quite a few people have made a living out of storm chasing and photography:

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=darw ... 66&bih=639

Thought Id mention "Hector", who is a legendary storm system that rises daily above the Tiwi Islands 80kms to the north of Darwin between around late September to late March in the afternoons. Its a world famous phenomenon in meteorological circle and we often host groups of scientists who come to study storm formation in the most consistently reliable storm location in the world. The storm tops reach 20+km into the atmosphere and punch right through the troposphere.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector_%28cloud%29


Hector is a beast to watch forming! It just boils and roils and towers over the ocean and gives very good rain to the islands. Darwin and surrounds has very flat topography so you can see Hector from hundreds of kilometres, quite useful for gaining your bearings as he will always be to the north.

This is the view I have from the beach 5 minutes walk away of Hector rising, I love it when you see the cloud tops punching through the troposphere at around 1 minute in:

OK here is more eye candy for the storm chasers amongst you

While this is yet another video of our lightening displays, unlike the others this is in real time rather than time lapse, and you can see how the lightening is giving almost continual illumination like a strobe. We can get these storms on a nightly basis some years and this year is shaping up to be a good storm season!




Should I have posted this in the weather and meteorology forum

Great storm Sean!

Great videos Sean, and you did post in the Weather and climatology section

I love thunderstorms and especially impressive lightening displays, but I never see them a la Darwin. Only one on this level comes to mind. I was transfixed for an hour by one like the real time vid on the Island of Corfu in July 1975.