Wheat Belt Lightning and Storm Photos

At the end of a long winter with no lightning photos to my name spring 2003 was frustratingly quiet. With few opportunities for lightning photos so far that year, Friday 5th December 2003 looked particularly promising as a mid level and surface trough were forecast to interact near Perth. Storms eventually fired after sunset along a convergence line just east of Toodyay and Northam, and Mike Fewings and I decided to give chase. We reached Toodyay just after 11pm and shortly after were parked in a farm paddock taking lightning photos as a very active lightning storm was turning night into day. I took the lightning photos below as an intense storm formed right in front of us. It moved off to the SSE, but another was already developing to it's north.

As the night progressed it became obvious that the thunderstorm activity was drifting south of our location. With the majority of lightning now occurring to our south we of course decided to follow. Using back roads we found our way to a spot just north of Meckering where we were treated to one of the best lightning displays I have ever seen. We found ourselves in a perfect position under the storm's rain free base as one lightning bolt after another dropped just on the edge of the rain curtain, right in front of us. I really like the lightning photos of multiple strikes as they are not long exposures, rather a true reflection of the storm's intensity as all those bolts were dropping simultaneously! If you are wandering what the orange object in two of the photos is, it's actually the setting moon just visible through the heavy rain curtain.

We stayed in the same spot observing the above storm until rain began to fall and the lightning became just a little too close for comfort! We then drove south hoping to get ahead of the storm once more, which we actually managed to do. We drove into Meckering with high hopes of more lightning photos as the rain was now behind us and lightning bolts were hitting the ground just on the other side of the town. The storm however had one more trick up it's sleeve, unloading on us with marble sized hail closely followed by torrential rain. We rode the storm out under a tree, and when the rain stopped I took the photos below as yet another storm formed to our west as the sun rose in the east.