HUGE Positive Lightning Hit!

[David Brookshier]

I don't know if he is telling the truth or not I have just a couple of red flags that make this photograph hard for me to see as real.

1> This cloud to ground lightning strike is reporteldy a positive flash which are far more powerful around ten times the strength of negative charged CGs. They are extremely rare and if he were truly that close to one I'm surprised none of the branching current ground arced into him.

2> More importantly how can anyone capture a lighting strike at this range with a camra mounted on the back of a bumper and not have serious camra shake from the resulting shock wave. The shock wave from a positive flash would be even more powerful and that to me makes this even more unconvincing. How can you not get camra shake from a CG ten times the standard strength of thier negative counterparts especially at the range shown in the photograph and mounted on a car of all things, I don't buy it.

 

[Kurt Hulst]

Could it be a reflection off a mirrior in the camera it self or the mirror in the lense which could lead to the ghosting of the lightning bolt itself especially if its that close. I dont know.

But heres a shot i took through my car window and this thing was no more than 200 feet from me. you can see each individual rain drop too. Taken with a Nikon N65 fuji ISO 100 F11 i think for about 5-7 seconds

 

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi,

Being in Australia, I do recall the photographs appearing in the Sydney Morning Herald. I know the area where the photograph was taken and can confirm that there was a storm in the area on the date mentioned as I video taped the event.

I have always questioned the suggested 20 metres distance. Not being a known chaser indicates the lack of estimation ability in my opinion. This suburb has larger backyards than current blocks of land being Old Toongabbie so the neighbour's back yard could well be slighly further away. I have not checked any lightning data and polarity from the event but I am suspect about the claim of rare instensity!

On another note, I have recently (last Saturday) escaped a lightning strike during a barrage of lightning in western Sydney not too distant from where I live. I felt a couple of 'spikes' simultaneously on my right foot through my shoes (we call sneakers) rubber base? This lightning which my friend saw who was in the car struck an estimated 30 to 50 metres away. Has anyone else felt this before being extremely close and standing outside. I was near the car but not touching the car and was near my tripod. Also, as most of you may know, the video camera gave an interference sound during play back prior to the thunder (the video camera was just not facing the lightning bolt). The thunder as one would also anticipate was significantly louder than even some other close thunders striking fairly close (one about 300 metres away).

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

 

[Michael Thompson]

Following on from Jimmy's comment about camera interference, I had this happen twice within a minute on 14 April 1999.

In both cases an audible noise came from the camera, but did not record. The playback looks like interference, but on a frame by frame is just the lightning illuminating the surrounds. Only 1.4mb.

http://ozthunder.com/temp/sydney_hail.wmv

This storm by the way was what become the infamous Sydney Supercell that did several billions $$ in hail damage.

My original chase log of the event is here -

http://ozthunder.com/chase/chase13.htm

On another storm chase I had lightning strike a tree 10m ( 30 ft ) from me. The base of the tree actually caught on fire! I was extremely lucky and suffered no ill affects at all. My theory is that it was only a minor branch of lightning and that the tree was growing in salty wet ground, hence earthed well. There is a chase log of this encounter also. Includes very minor track on tree, and a photo taken ( facing away from tree ) at time of strike.

http://ozthunder.com/chase/chase45.htm

Regards
Michael