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STORMS - Part 1

Mixed pictures from the years 1997 and 2000 :

- Saint Loup Peak (Hérault), June 5, 2000 -

Le Pic Saint Loup sous la menace de l'Orage.
   The afternoon goes by as I watch the evolution of a thunderstorm close Saint Loup Peak, some 20 miles north of Montpellier,  France. Insects buzzing in the warm air as dark clouds rise over the white limestone ridge. I can listen to the rumbling of thunder in the distance.


   Promises of a violence than can turn into magnificence...

Un monstre sur les Cévennes !

- Supercell on the Cévennes, august 1997 -

The twilight let appear the enchanting vision of countless thunderbolts flashing in the deepness of this huge cumulonimbus cloud that raised on the Cévennes Mountains.
This "monster" more than 40,000 feet high looks like a supercell storm, that swallow hundreds of tons of warm and wet air each second.

Under this thermodynamically monster reigns chaos, hails and gusts, falling over the darkened forests in the deep valleys.

Get a closer look to the western side of this outstanding cumulonimbus cloud. Help to the 10 seconds exposure, the motion of the most active parts of the convective fueling of the monster are clearly visible. Shortly before this exposure, a giant lightning (a superbolt) connected the anvil to a distant groundspot, certainly mors than 6 miles away to the west of the cell. Of course, my shutter wasn't open at the right moment !

- Gignac, july 2000 - Foudre sur la montagne de la Sellette.

Late in the night, an unexpected firework is announced by distant rumblings. It's a nice occasion, and I fall out of my bed (it's 2:40 a.m. !) and ran to the show.  
Lightning are time-spaced, but really impressive, thanks to the high level of the cloud's ceiling (8000 feet minimum). I've just enough time to take this pictures before the beginning of rain and my encounter with wild pigs !

Foudre sur la montagne de la Sellette (encore !)

You can see two distinct actives stormcells, rough 12 and 45 kilometers away. Thunderbolts where so bright that I saw them just as giant hazy flashes, and I discovered their shapes only after processing the film !
Orage ettoufé.

But thunderbolts are not only flashes and lightnings. Lost in wan skies, distant gleams flutter, electrical bolts try to hide their strange shapes. And all this Mystery comes with damped hum.

Standing in silence, I let my lens drink these rare lights ...

- Close to Larzac Highlands, july 2000 -

After staying one hour long between the Mediterranean sea and the hills, this storm goes to the north, concerning now Larzac's Highlands. Long horizontal thunderbolts cross the sky, flashing the confused base of the cumulonimbus complex.

At one end of the limestone crest stays the broadcast tower of Saint Baudille (2785 ft.). The 200-feet pylon was at least twice thunderstruck, but never as the shutter of my camera was open ! On the picture above, lightnings are now a few kilometers behind, striking the vast dreary highlands of  the Causse du Larzac.

larzac2.jpg (14710 octets)

Up to the Larzac's plateau, I tried to take some other views of this active thunderstorm. But this one moved swiftly in direction of the Cévennes Mountains, so I was just able to catch one of the last lightning more than 20 kilometers away ! (here in deep southern France there's not a lot of fast, strait roads, so it not easy to reach a distant storm ! You lucky inhabitants of the middlewest plains !)

 

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