Violent Night Time Thunderstorm Over N. Ireland

I was up very late working on the computer. It was 03.00 and it was a very warm and muggy night, so much so that I was sweating and had no t-shirt on even with the windows open so I went down to the kitchen to get a brew. I was drinking from the backdoor checking out the sky. The sky was covered in a light layer of haze/murk at a high elevation but light enough because I could still see the brighter stars. A giant blue flash lit up the N sky. I thought to myself 'that's lightning', I assumed it was a one off event due to the intense heat then another appeared in the NE and another in the E. These were big blue flashes like bombs going off then I heard the first rumble of thunder. I grabbed the camera and walked a short distance up the road for a better view. Those blue flashes turned to giant orange flashes which lit the entire sky up. They grew in frequency and seemed more concentrated in the S and SE over Magherafelt. I saw I-C, C-C, possible C to air and the first of many c-gs. Some looked like anvil crawlers however I can't say I seen any anvils. Very large and long moving orange coloured c-gs hit the ground from behind Maghera and approached in my direction giving out loud long duration rumbles of thunder. The lightning criss crossed the sky and became very unpredictable.

A light shower began as a darker mass of cloud arrived which still looked high. I was taking images and caught a distant c-g then feeling excited I continued with more exposures when suddenly a bolt shot out from the S, passed over my head and hit the ground in the N very close to me and even closer to my house. These were violent c-gs so I ran for my life making this the 2nd time in less than a month in which I had to to run for cover from lightning. I watched the storm from home for the rest of the period. It produced non stop lightning and thunder until 04.30 when it became less frequent and slowly drifted away into the N or NW. As dawn was breaking I could see the dark shapes of towering cu against the twilight which was the only time during the 1.5 hour long event that I seen any convective clouds. It was both a frightening and exciting night!. This was quite a serious storm so I am surprised there have been no lightning damage reports in the media. Haven't got the images out of the camera yet, they are not great because of the wide angle making the bolts small but at least I caught my first c-g of the season on camera as well as a nice I-C. Got some video of the thunder also. I would love to know exactly how this happened and why we were not alerted to this?, From reading between the lines I assume that this has caught many people off guard. There was no mention of any weather like that on the television reports anyway. By Martin Mc Kenna

www.Nightskyhunter.com

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Thunderstorm
• Lightning
• Maghera
• N.
• Ireland

[o00scorpion00o]

Why is it that Ireland's weather seems to have changed so much? I mean other countries get winters and summers like they usually did. We used to get Snow, Ok we still get frost but I remember comming home from school in the evenings at 4.00pm and there would be freezing fog almost every night. And the only difference in the seasons these days as far as I can see is that the rain in summer is a little warmer! and the leaves on the trees of course! OR maybe other countries climates have changed?

[asteroid42531mckenna]

I have no idea, each year seems to bring it's own surprises, last Winter was very cold here, the coldest in years but there where not many good snow events which was disappointing, more in the way of freezing fog as you said. This Spring and 1/2 Summer has been good though, sun, hot sunshine, and storms, it's gone downhill though since July, who knows what will happen next.

[o00scorpion00o]

lol i saw one flash, I remember the storms of the 1980's and early 90's was really severe in the south east, but since then it has calmed down a bit here. but in other parts not so much. it varies a lot for such a small island! now where I live the rain seems to be more severe and torrential without thunderstorms and I don't understand that?

[asteroid42531mckenna]

Yea I know what you mean. I recall the absolutely incredible night electrical storms we used to get back in 2006, 05, and earlier years. Those were stupendous and on par with the great storms in other countries. 2008 was a poor year with rain and floods although this year has been excellent for storms, only thing missing are the night kind.u never know what could happen in August.

[mynarr]

u never seen a violent storm, this is nothing

[asteroid42531mckenna]

You didn't read what I said in the comments section did you?. This was the end of the storm when it was dying out. I never got video of the violent part because I was trying to take stills during that period. So this is the very end when the lightning had calmed down. But I have never seen a severe t-storm because they are few and far between in these parts.

[B789c]

@howiej103 i do

[howiej103]

Our weather's the same as it's always been, we just think it's changing; we only remember the rare extremes that affected us when we were younger, and we forget the endless mild rainy days which are oh so normal to a maritime climate.

Know what I'm sayin'? ;-)

[roju0229]

so why bother put a video after the storm >_>?

[supergreatcornholio]

it happens =)

[lostteen08]

well it's never like this in ireland so it's very strange... piss off