Storm's a Brewin'

[PhilDernerJr]

Crazy storms sweeping throught he city. LGA is pretty mcuh shutdown. I was watchin weather radar and Passur as it cmae through and evne zoomed out to the 80 mile view on Passur, I can't see ANY LGA traffic whatsoever.

Any LGA guys able to share any eyewitness ont he insanity?

[LGA777]

Worst lightning I have seen in a while, about an hour before the storm hit I went out on the roof for a few gridlock photo's, got a couple with 16 airliners sitting on taxiway's Alpha and Bravo all East of the USAirways Terminal. Needless to say some of them where pretty close together and at the head of the line was our friend N742PS ! Will try and upload to JP over the weekend !

Cheers

LGA777

[cancidas]

from my wx source, as of 0119Z:

http://www.nycaviation.com/hosting/nationalradar.jpg
http://www.nycaviation.com/hosting/midatlanticradar.jpg


looks like fun!

[Matt Molnar]

By far the most lightning I've ever seen. At least four strikes extremely close to my LIRR train from when we exited the tunnel to Jamaica: brilliant flashes followed immediately by loud thunder. When I got to Jamaica I just stood and watched for awhile and counted about 30 flashes per minute. These map I found confirm that count...

Courtesy StrikeStarUS.com (http://www.strikestarus.com/northeast.htm):
http://www.cheesebus.com/images/misc/lightning61.jpg


Courtesy HazardPredictor.com (http://www.hazardpredictor.com/ltg/images/uspln.jpg):
http://www.cheesebus.com/images/misc/lightning61a.jpg

[mikephotos]

Great stuff, I love storms. Tyler took this shot tonight. I couldn't catch a strike if my life depended on it. Tyler's asks to give it a try and he gets it on the first couple of attempts.

http://www.nycaviation.com/hosting/tylerstormshot.jpg

Mike

[USAF Pilot 07]

Wow, that is an awesome picture!

[727C47]

Mike, awesome shot! Where do you live?

[mikephotos]

Thanks guys. I live in Rockaway Beach. Oh, and for those who do not know, Tyler is my 6 yr old son.

Mike

[Steven Holzinger]

We had two different storm cells converge right over Marlton, dumping an insane amount of rain on us, lightning everywhere, and knocking out our power for a good five hours. My dad was washing his hair when a bolt of lightning struck in our backyard (I was upstairs in my bathroom at the time, looking out the window to watch the lightning... talk about seeing the different shades of color in a lightning bolt and scaring the living **** out of me!) and he swears it went through the water and struck him.

[fly.mcs]

Managed to get a short video from my house in Brooklyn; a few cracks are seen in the sky:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... 193160&n=2 (http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=791193160&n=2)

[T-Bird76]

Managed to get a short video from my house in Brooklyn; a few cracks are seen in the sky:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... 193160&n=2 (http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=791193160&n=2)

cool video!! It seems these storm die out by the time they reach Eastern Long Island, we got a few claps thunder and that's it.

[Iberia A340-600]

Up in Poughkeepsie we haven't been getting much of the storms that have been going on latley, pretty unfortunate since I love storms. But it meant that SWF was reciving a lot of diversions.

Mike, that shot that your son took is pretty amazing, looks like somebodys catching up to their dad! :P

[Matt Molnar]

cool video!! It seems these storm die out by the time they reach Eastern Long Island, we got a few claps thunder and that's it.

Storms moving west to east (as they normally do) usually die down far west of that, before they even hit NYC. Thunderstorms don't like mountains or water, so the bigger ones usually lose much of their intensity by the time they make it to the city, and especially Queens and Brooklyn having crossed two rivers and some mountains in NJ. Despite all the severe thunderstorm warnings issued for the 5 boroughs in my time on earth, I can only recall ONE that did any major wind damage (not including lightning damage), and that was when I was about 7 years old. I've only seen hail a couple of times, and both times it was small and stopped quickly.

I think I've said this before, but the weather pattern we're in reinforces my belief that there are some major changes occurring in the atmosphere. The weather over the past several months in NY and the world has been very odd. The humidity of the past couple days has been oppressive like the deep south in August...very similar to how it felt in the days when the remnants of Hurricane Katrina were passing over us last September. Massive typhoons hitting Australia and China. The biggest snowfall in NYC history, complete with thunder and lightning. A tropical storm hitting PORTUGAL!

I'm not at all convinced that humans are causing this.

[N790SW]

Managed to get a short video from my house in Brooklyn; a few cracks are seen in the sky:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... 193160&n=2 (http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=791193160&n=2)


hey is it me or a few of those bolts actually touched the ground- those are some great shots there btw - as far as long island - its rainging here with alott of ligthing. its awsome to watch though when your not sleeping =) i am sure many of you would agree with me on that one.

also one time about 3 years ago i saw a WN 73NG takeoff during a thunderstorm - i even saw the lighting too - anyone care to explain tht one too ?

[PhilDernerJr]

It's my understanding that lightning STARTS at the ground, or from whatever object is being "struck".

[LGA777]

Here is my LGA Gridlock shot as promised from Thursday evening about an hour before the **** "really hit the fan".

http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5741720


Cheers

LGA777

[Mellyrose]

Ron, you have the coolest shots of anyone, in my opinion. That single photo represents damn near every type and airline that flies in and out of LGA everyday. Amazing. It's my wallpaper on my laptop now. :)

[fly.mcs]

Ron, again a great shot! That night was pretty amazing, but it's amazing how backed up LGA was. You say they were departing runway 13; the line-up goes all the way down to the other end (runway 31) and then wraps around!! Nice shot.

[USAF Pilot 07]

It's my understanding that lightning STARTS at the ground, or from whatever object is being "struck".

That's only one kind of lightning.

There are three kinds of lightning:
- Clound to Ground
- Ground to Cloud
- Cloud to Cloud

90% of lightning strikes that impact the ground are Cloud to Ground lightning. This happens when there are positive ions at the base of the clouds and negative ions at ground level. When the attraction of these ions gets too strong, they release their energy in the form of a lightning bolt. Since positive travels to negative, it travels from the cloud to the ground, hence why it is called Cloud to Ground lightning.

Ground to Cloud lightning is the same, but reversed (positive ions on the ground, negative in the clouds) but is much more rare because it is more difficult to obtain negative ions in the cloud base.