Weather Watching

[Turtle]

____I love all things weather! With varying degrees of intensity & ambition I measure & observe my local weather asiduously. I keep a rain gauge, I video tape clouds, I note trends & extremes, & in general observe weather.
___Currently I live in a rather unique weather region, being on a hiil composed of Missoula flood deposits from 11,000 year ago & banking the Columbia River. Today we have generaly clear weather, the barometer is steady at 30.0 and strong gusty winds.
___Anyway, any of you all weather watchers? Seen any spectacular phenomena? Keep a rain gauge? Have a barometer?

[orbsycli]

i am fascinated with the clouds, and the sky. i don't know much technical information about weather, other than i think nothing is more amazing than the sky.
i was in florida for those 3 hurricanes last summer, that was a trip.
seeing flashing lights and someone on an intercom telling you to evacuate is not a very nice thing to hear in the middle of the night! i live right on the manatee river so the potential was really dangerous, luckily nothing happened.

also, i keep frequent watch of the humidity and rainfall...those two together tells me to not even bother to leave my house at night. i will be eaten alive by mosquitos! horrible beasts.

[C1ay]

I can sit and watch lightning for hours. The light show is better than any man-made show I've ever attended.

[orbsycli]

YES! another positive thing about florida (i generally hate this place) is the lightning. i can't wait until it's in season again, it can go all night. the thunder is the perfect soundtrack, as loud as a close show of fireworks where i live.

[Turtle]

___Have you recorded it Orby?
____Love the lightening C1ay! If I hadn't dematerialized my photo collection i would post up some Science Gallery photos of lightening I caught. I am on watch now!
___BTW, sunset approaches me here; did you know dusk & dawn are the most adventageous times to work sorcery?

[orbsycli]

haha i did not know that. and no i've never recorded the lightning, i did take a picture once though...

[Turtle]

___Eery photo Orb! After having the warmest day of the year Friday, we have thunderstorms & rain since. Rather unusual too, as they come from the East & most our weather comes from the other 3 directions.
___Count me cloudy in Cascades

[Turtle]

___Quite the lightning storm here last night! I have a montage of lightning stills from video taken during the storm. I have the shots in the Science Gallery
http://hypography.com/gallery/browse...c=3&userid=796
___We all sat around the kitchen table overlooking the storm from our bluff & just enjoyed the power of nature. The strange orange sky cast a haunting air before the storm really hit. The lightning lasted about 40 minutes & much of it too distant for us to hear the thunder. The infrared image (last in the montage) however caught a bolt whose thunder shook the house within 3 seconds, making it barely 3/10 kilometer away.
___Following shortly after that bolt, the rain began & lasted just another 40 minutes or so; 3/10 inch of rain in the gauge this morning. Forcasters say a similar, albeit less energetic, system may move in again tonight.

[Turtle]

___As hurricane Dennis approaches the US coast, I just heard them say this is the FIRST ever in recorded history (since 1850's) that a category 4 or higher hurricane has formed in the Gulf of Mexico.
___We too here in the Pacific NW have some strange weather continuing with unusual amounts of rain & low temps for this time of year.
___Interesting weather watching this week.

[Chacmool]

I live in Pretoria (near Johannesburg) in South Africa. We also have spectacular thunderstorms in summer, and I love watching the lightning displays (after running around the house to plug out all electrical appliances ) Unfortunately, I haven't been able to take any photographs of lightning. Any tips/suggestions?

It's winter now, and where I live it's usually cloudless, with the most beautiful blue sky. It's also not very cold (minimum temperatures seldom drop below zero, and daytime highs often reach 20 degrees Celcius or more - I guess many people won't even call it winter).