Magnificent!

Cleef

Bronze
Feb 24, 2002
1,797
6
0
Was anyone else witness to the remarkable lightning show on display Monday night over the Northern part of Santo Domingo?

I've seen some amazing thunderheads make their way across the land and put on some great shows, but what went on last night was absolutely incredible.

From Mirador Sur, I stopped in amazement at a cloud that stretched from horizon to horizon and was filled with lightning that couldn't get out of it's own way. Constant and furious explosions like it was made in Hollywood. If you saw this on the big screen you would have instantly figured it was done through animation.

There were bolts going up and down, left and right. Each bolt couldn't get it's charge off quick enough, they would explode and thousands of trailers would shoot off in every direction.

Not even a hint of thunder. My gawking got the attention of a couple that had sat down on a bench to take a break and we chatted about it and they agreed that they'd never seen anything like it.

HB told me that they (we) don't have heat lightning here, but I have to say it was the closest thing in that it wasn't coming right out of an anvil like a usual thunderhead offers. But it was close.

Just wondered if any of you other weather buffs saw this and had any other details/visuals to offer.

Maybe the free water they were giving out was actually tap water and it was all halucinations. I still have a bottle in my fridge, I'm going to gulp that one down and give it another try tonight.

Sorry I didn't have my camera with me, but I've posted some of my lightning shots in the gallery for those interested. It was over a year ago, so you'll likely have to go a few pages back.

Cleef, with his head in the clouds as usual.
 

XanaduRanch

*** Sin Bin ***
Sep 15, 2002
2,493
0
0
I am jealous!

You guys have all the fun down there. I have lived in the tropics before, in Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur, and visited Bangkok, Madras, etc. I loved to watch the storms wandering around KL. They'd hit you, drift over toward Petaling Jaya for 1/2 an hour, drift back over you again on the way to Genting. It was a blast! So I thought retiring here we'd have more storms. I have been disappointed. Don't know if it's always like this or maybe I've just been here for a few dry years.

I am always annoying wife, family, and friends asking "Donde esta mis tormentas??!!" I am always the only one out on the deck watching the lightning storms off in the distance. Dominicans generally just don't care. :: sigh :: Their loss!

Tom (aka XR)
 

Cleef

Bronze
Feb 24, 2002
1,797
6
0
I thought of you

I was relating to this couple why I thought we get such great shows here on the South Coast.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is how I see it. My experience/knowledge (or lack thereof) comes from reading a great book National Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Weather.

I lived in Arroyo Hondo (North Santo Domingo) for a year and we'd get a daily drenching, sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes 25.

When I lived in Julieta (5th floor looking north), I could see those same lines of storms coming, and we'd get the occasional drenching power storm right in the city proper, but not daily. Now that I'm on the ocean I can see the line even more distinctly, and we get even less rain.

So, after flying in from Puerto Rico, right along the south coast I could see where the hot, moist air comes along and hits the baking coral - also laced with moisture of it's own - and then begins to hit the rising land and sending the heated air upwards.

As it gets farther and farther inland and begins to ride the thermals and really begins to rise, the windsheer at 30K feet chops off the tops of the storms and that allows more upward pressure/movement and eventually this all spills out and creates the massive clouds that quickly fan out and dump their good tidings.

If I'm not right on, I'm pretty close. It's clear to see that they are coming from the interior and the northwesterly track seems to spare the southern part of S.D., and especially the coast line. Boca Chica for instance has little of no land in between it and the east, so it rarely gets rain unless the storm comes right off the ocean.

I'm willing to bet that Arroyo Hondo gets anywhere from 2-4 times the annual amount of rainfall that we do in the south part of the city. Or maybe it's just Colon and that black cloud he has trailing him around ;) over there.

Anyone with me? Or am I just out riding my bike hallucinating on good ole' Dominican tap water?
 
Last edited:

Timex

Bronze
May 9, 2002
726
0
0
It was Spectacular!!!!

My wife and I sat in the living room, were are house over-looks Haina, all across the bay, along the coastline, and over parts of the Capital.

I too have never seen anything like it.
And not 1 crack of thunder, it was like sitting in the twilight zone!!

Tim H.
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
17,850
982
113
Yep, I saw it, driving home from Mirador Sur along Av Luperon, and then watched it for a good half hour from our galeria in Arroyo Hondo with my son asking, "where's the rain?"

It was amazing.

Chiri
 

Cleef

Bronze
Feb 24, 2002
1,797
6
0
I was thinking Flash Gordon, but TZ works.

The couple asked me about the lack of thunder and I figured because of all the distance and filters (trees, flora, valleys, traffic, whatever) that perhaps that was why.

I asked some of my students who live farther north and they said there wasn't any thunder either.

But then again, the inexplicable is commonplace here.
 

XanaduRanch

*** Sin Bin ***
Sep 15, 2002
2,493
0
0
Maybe There Was No Thunder Because ...

... what you all witnessed was just one of Hippo's Dominican government electrical 'engineers' trying to throw the switch to connect us all to that new supply of free, unlimited, electricity he's been promising the country for weeks.

Tom (aka XR)
Sitting, Waiting, Staring at the Electrical Outlets at Xanadu for the First Trickle ...

:rolleyes:
 
Last edited:

sable227

New member
Aug 11, 2003
41
0
0
We saw it too. It was amazing.

<-----to XR: quit looking at those switches and circuits. It is like watching the grass grow.:cross-eye
 
Last edited:

ltsnyder

Bronze
Jun 4, 2003
624
0
16
www.x3ci.com
Actually, the term "Heat Lightning"

Just refers to Lightning in the distance, the clouds in between make it look like the cloads them selves are lighting up, but in actuallity there is a bolt of lighting in there, to the ground or between parts of clouds.

-Lee