Storm season

After a long dry spell the storm season has finally hit Brisbane. The days are hot & humid but every afternoon the clouds start to build on the horizon and all eyes are on the skies or the weather radars. If you look one way the sky is clear, but the other way looks like impending Armageddon.

When a big storm front rolls over the sky turns a weird, troubled & turbulent green. At this point you just want to get the car undercover, as the hail can dent the bodywork and even shatter car windows.

When you're somewhere safe you can sit back and admire the awesome beauty of the storm. Much to Liz's amusement I've developed a bit of an obsession for trying to take photos of lightning.

The pros use tripods, remote shutter releases and even lightning detectors that pick up the initial flash and trigger the shutter instantaneously. I settled down on the porch steps with an ultrazoom and a couple of beers. I took a lot of photos of the night, but got a couple of reasonable shots too.

It was very relaxing to sit back and watch the storm roll past and try to see patterns in the clouds, although after a while it seemed to be taunting me. Every time I focused on one part of the sky there seemed to be a ground strike in another, and when I finally gave up and walked inside there was a huge flash and a roll of thunder so loud it shook the house.

In light of all this there's only one tune that I can put up today...