lightning

Eastie waterfront goes boom

By adamg - 6/10/11 - 6:00 am

David Chau was in the right place and time to capture a lightning bolt hitting the East Boston waterfront during yesterday afternoon's storm.

More lightning over Boston.

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By the Garden, 5 p.m.

By adamg - 6/9/11 - 4:35 pm

Cat took this photo as the storm barreled in.

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Direct hit on the Pru

By adamg - 6/2/11 - 7:04 am

Commish96 shot this last night. Lightning strikes on the Pru are actually relatively common, but always dramatic.

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Bolts over Boston

By adamg - 6/1/11 - 9:28 pm

Historygradguy titled his photo of the Back Bay OMFG (see it large). Nathanael Hevelone captured some lightning over Allston at the height of the storm:

Meanwhile, the mayor's office reports about 3,000 customers lost power in the storm, concentrated in Dorchester, West Roxbury and Brighton.

Supercell over Nahant.

Top photo copyright Historygradguy. Hevelone's photo posted under this Creative Commons license and in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

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Man hit by lightning on Castle Island causeway

By adamg - 8/5/10 - 10:34 pm

NECN reports on a lightning strike at the "Sugar Bowl" off Castle Island:

Separately, Channel 5 reports a West Roxbury man was injured by flying debris when lightning hit his house at 55 Sanborn Ave.

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Spotters, activate!

By adamg - 6/24/10 - 8:29 am

The National Weather Service concludes its cataclysmic forecast for this afternoon ("AN ISOLATED TORNADO OR WATERSPOUT IS POSSIBLE") with

SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL LIKELY BE NEEDED TODAY

Our very own Kaz ponders this:

I imagine something like Power Rangers. "Spotters, ACTIVATE!"

Ben Jackson, who actually is a weather spotter, reveals some of the secrets:

No helmets, spandex, or decoder rings, but we do get a hotline to the NWS office and a spotter ID code.

William Ricker alerts us that Twitter users can tweet damage to @wx1box.

Oh, and about that forecast. NECN's Matt Noyes concludes a technical overview of the impending doom with:

Due to the rapid speed of these storms, it's imperative that the meteorological community prepare the public to be ready to take shelter immediately upon hearing thunder, and keeping an eye to the western horizon. We don't often see such fast moving storms here in New England, and this will be a defining characteristic. Regardless of damage done, my concern is that we have folks understanding "dark sky" to storm on top of you may be a very short period of time Thursday afternoon.

Ed. question: Why does the National Weather Service still CAPITALIZE EVERYTHING? Are they still sending out alerts via telegraph?

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Weeping for a willow

By adamg - 6/21/10 - 10:21 am

Susan Labandibar mourns the loss of a giant willow tree at Columbia Road and Day Boulevard, struck by lightning yesterday:

... It shaded and cooled us, and it was a haven for birds. It gave me a jolt of pleasure every morning I ran by it. I marveled at its gracefully twisting trunk and deeply veined bark and at the grace of its boughs festooned with thousands of strands of willow leaves. ...

And now she wonders why the city is insisting on removing another large tree in Andrew Square:

... While the project does provide for planting new trees, these trees will simply join the ranks of the hundreds of others that the city has planted that wither, die back, and then die over the next few years. I am not aware of any money provided for maintenance and no money provided for replacement if the trees die.