Late Summer Thunderfest!

September 19-20, 2005

 

Brief Summary: Southerly flow aloft brought fast moving thunderstorms to all of San Diego County from the afternoon of the 19th through the morning hours of the 20th. Thunderstorms this time of year are not rare by any means, however, thunderstorms lasting for up to 12 straight hours west of the mountains at any given spot is a bit unusual. Lightning started here in Oceanside about an hour before sunset on the 19th. For the first few hours, lightning was not particularly intense but was neat none the less. By midnight, the lightning activity increased substantially and lasted well past 6 am, which is when I left for work. The lightning frequency was comparable to some of the thunderstorms I've experienced in the Great Plains. Some of the lightning was so close, they illuminated the rain drops on some of my photos. The thunderstorms all had small cores, and rainfall generally ranged from around a tenth to half inch, depending on the location.

 

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Late Afternoon Thunderstorms Arrive

Thunderstorms moved in just in time to enhance the sunset. Looking back, I should have driven down to the pier for some silhouette shots. I had thought about driving down to the pier later that night during the lightning show, but decided not to since I had to get up early for work.

Surprisingly, one high-base thunderstorm produced a small funnel cloud. The funnel cloud lasted 5 mminutes at most and never posed a threat.

 

Cloud to Ground Lightning Show

One of many hundreds of North County lightning strikes. Several thousand cloud to ground lightning strikes were recorded over southern California by the Lightning Detection Network.

 

Some of the lightning would crawl for miles along the cloud base.

 

This close lightning bolt actually illuminated the rain drops in front of my camera.

 

Here is a Zoom/Crop of the lightning photo from above. Notice all the rain drops... Proof that falling rain drops in general look more like spheres... not tear drops.

 

Same as above, but only shifted to the left of the lightning bolt.

 

More Lightning / Thunderstorm Photos Coming Soon

 

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