Poor Rain Season for Namibia

Unfortunately we are headed to the end of the rain storm season. Winter
is looming around the corner and we have had just about no rain yet.
This has to be one of the poorest rain seasons I can remember, in fact I
can't remember it being this bad ever. Since January we have only had
about 25mm, which is basically nothing. There was a lot more rain in the
north than what we got here in the Central Area. There are still a few
optimistic people that think the rain season will be late this year, but
I have my doubts. The grass which should have spread a lot this rain
season is barley alive. Watering is not as effective as rain water,
because there are so many chemicals in our recycled water. So it looks
as if we may be in for a long cold winter. There are still a couple of
clouds that build up in the afternoons which mostly give one false hope
for a bit of rain.
With the weather changing all over the planet, who knows what to expect.
Saw last week the US had freezing weather when they were supposed to be
in Spring Time. I recon that changes are going to become more noticeable
a lot quicker than everyone thinks. So with all this, I have not got the
huge amount of lightning pictures I was looking so forward to this
season. Pretty sad hey?

Tornadoes touch down across America

Tornadoes hit the American Midwest yesterday. Quit a few people have been killed, amongst those killed were 5 school kids. I was looking at some pictures on CNN News and it definitely looks like a war zone out there. The area is still in danger of more tornadoes. Above is a map of the danger areas. Sincere condolences to those who have lost loved ones.

Abnormal Weather in Namibia

More weather blues as far as rain goes for Namibia. Since Saturday last weekend we have had a major drop in air temperatures! This is unheard of in the month of February. Usually the temperatures are in the mid thirties. There are floods in Angola, which is where most of our rain actually comes from, but as you can see in the insert (Left), there is little to no air movement to bring some of that moisture south to Namibia. Another front is also expected (as you can see) which is said to mess things up even longer! So... half way through February, things look a bit on the bleak side when it comes to some exciting thunderstorms, usually in full swing this time of the year. The rain season so far, has been extremely poor. The cool abnormal weather was welcomed by most, who struggle to handle the hot summer conditions here in Namibia. The cool weather lasted almost all week. Temperatures were as low as 11 degrees Celsius.

Thunderstorm Blues

January has been a bad month for good thunderstorms in the Windhoek
area. Most days have shown good promise for some awesome lightning, but
unfortunately I have no spectacular lighting pictures for January. Most
of the storms were out of the Windhoek area. Sunday night was pretty
spectacular with one to two lightning bolts every second, for about an
hour or so. Unfortunately it was too dark for the trusty old camcorder
to get any pictures of lightning, and the main part of the storm was too
far away. The clouds were constantly lighting up from within, making for
a great show. Let's hope that changes during February.

Cloud to Cloud Spider Lightning

These pictures were taken just before Christmas 2006. The full set is available frame by frame at the Lightning Storm Pictures Web site.

The 2 sets are available in Microsoft PowerPoint for download. Both of the lightning sets acually were about 1 second in real time!