[AZ-Observing] Re: Thursday Night's Sky Viewing

I can't recall such a long "siege" of continuous lightning before, here 
in Phoenix. It rained very heavily here in Fountain Hills, for over an 
hour.  I note about 1.5 inches in my rain gauge this morning.  The storm 
system seemed to come in from the NE, and moved rapidly to the south.  
Most of the lightning was occurring overhead or in the clouds to the south.
Quite remarkable, and a bit scary.  I went out on the front porch (under 
the atrium roof) while the cloud-to-cloud lightning strikes were 
occurring, and noted a faint "buzzing" sound, each time one of the 
flashes occurred.  I believe it must have been a weak static electricity 
discharge, through the walls of the house.  My house is frame stucco 
construction, without any lightning rods.  I suppose the static 
electricity could be transmitted upwards, via the metal lathe under the 
stucco...  This occurred in step with the lightning discharges, 
otherwise I would have discounted it.
We also had several episodes of hailstones that struck the roof and 
skylights with a good deal of force.  I picked one up that bounced in, 
onto the balcony floor -- it was a thick, flattened oval "droplet" of 
clear ice, about the size of a nickel but about 3/8 of an inch thick.
Nice pix, Tom.  Hope you weren't too "exposed"!
Gene Lucas
(17250)
Tom Polakis wrote:
> I know, this list is supposed to discuss astronomy observing, but that's one 
> active thunderstorm passing through Phoenix tonight!  Before the rain 
> arrived, lightning was striking at a frenetic pace of 3 or 4 strikes per 
> second.  Almost all of it was cloud-to-cloud lightning, so I took 
> somepictures with a fisheye lens.
> http://www.pbase.com/polakis/lightining0808
> Tom
>   

--
See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please 
send personal replies to the author, not the list.

Other related posts: