• After witnessing the continued decrease of involvement in the SpotterNetwork staff in serving SN members with troubleshooting issues recently, I have unilaterally decided to terminate the relationship between SpotterNetwork's support and Stormtrack. I have witnessed multiple users unable to receive support weeks after initiating help threads on the forum. I find this lack of response from SpotterNetwork officials disappointing and a failure to hold up their end of the agreement that was made years ago, before I took over management of this site. In my opinion, having Stormtrack users sit and wait for so long to receive help on SpotterNetwork issues on the Stormtrack forums reflects poorly not only on SpotterNetwork, but on Stormtrack and (by association) me as well. Since the issue has not been satisfactorily addressed, I no longer wish for the Stormtrack forum to be associated with SpotterNetwork.

    I apologize to those who continue to have issues with the service and continue to see their issues left unaddressed. Please understand that the connection between ST and SN was put in place long before I had any say over it. But now that I am the "captain of this ship," it is within my right (nay, duty) to make adjustments as I see necessary. Ending this relationship is such an adjustment.

    For those who continue to need help, I recommend navigating a web browswer to SpotterNetwork's About page, and seeking the individuals listed on that page for all further inquiries about SpotterNetwork.

    From this moment forward, the SpotterNetwork sub-forum has been hidden/deleted and there will be no assurance that any SpotterNetwork issues brought up in any of Stormtrack's other sub-forums will be addressed. Do not rely on Stormtrack for help with SpotterNetwork issues.

    Sincerely, Jeff D.

Santa Fe, NM Lightning

John Farley

Supporter
Joined
Apr 1, 2004
Messages
1,946
Location
Pagosa Springs, CO
I was fortunate to observe and photograph a spectacular lightning display as a monsoon storm approached Santa Fe the evening of August 5:

lightning080507-1.jpg


More pictures here:

http://www.johnefarley.com/lightning080507.htm
 
Cool shot John. My uncle has a place up north of town by the opera. Its really cool to watch those storms swell up and the high based lightning zap all around. I don't know if it's true or not but the park ranger out at the Valles Caldera said that their park is one of the most electrically active parts of NM. Did you ever hear of that one John?
 
Thanks for the comments, everyone. The monsoon indeed does get this far up into NM, and even farther north, up into Colorado and Utah as well. Dewpoints in parts of NM have been over 60 recently, and close to that here in Santa Fe. Other times of year, they are much lower.

In regard to the Valles Caldera question, that makes sense to me. Nearly every day the storms over the Jemez Mountains are the first to form, and last year when fishing in the Caldera we were warned about lightning and that often, the people fishing there are ordered out early (there is a complicated procedure with strict time limits for fishing there, but they are often further restricted due to lightning.)

Last May, while on the way up to fish a bit west of the Caldera, I encountered a thunderstorm that produced mixed rain and snow, even though the temperature in Los Alamos before the storm was around 70. There are pics on my Web page if you are interested. There certainly were lots of CGs there that day.
 
John
Very nice . What camera, exposure, asa etc

Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL
Image Date: 1980:01:01 00:12:25
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 115.0mm
CCD Width: 7.97mm
Exposure Time: 1.000 s
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO equiv: 100
White Balance: Auto
Exposure Mode: Manual
 
Well, thanks, Jim, you beat me to it. Actually, you taught me something - I wasn't sure if you could pull the data off the file once it is re-sized for the Web, but obviously you can.

Most of the pictures were taken using a Canon 70-300 mm IS zoom lens. At various times, I had the zoom between 70 and about 130 or 140. Using the bulb setting with the camera on a tripod, I held the button down for about 15-20 seconds hoping for a bolt. As with this picture, sometimes I got lucky and got one just a second or two after I started. Of course I had lots with nothing, but with the lightning as frequent as it was, the success ratio for catching a bolt was better than usual. I got about 40 shots with lightning in them, far beyond what I usually manage.
 
Back
Top