WEATHER VIDEO

LIGHTNING

1. June 2, 2006 at Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, NY   A very powerful lightning bolt that struck no more than 30 feet away from the camera in front of my window overlooking Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York, on June 2, 2006.

2. June 8, 1990 at Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, NY   This lightning strike took place in the back of an apartment building across the street from Prospect Park, from a second floor window, on June 8, 1990. The key here is to listen carefully (turn up the volume on your computer.) There is a distinctive "pop" or "crack" sound just as the lightning occurs. I am not sure what caused this sound, but you can tell that the ground level area where this bolt hit must have been very close, and just to the right, of the camera's position. Here's the B2 lightning strike video. (B2 is the number of the apartment I was in at the time.) Video is courtesy of Anthony Sclafane.

THUNDERSTORMS

1. June 28, 2008 at Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY    An isolated thunderstorm came in from the west during the afternoon. It dumped 1-2 inches of rain in 30 minutes over the area, causing heavy local flooding, as the video attests. The camera was facing north. (Here's the radar image.)

BLIZZARDS

1. December 26, 2010 at New York City, NY   This blizzard turned out to be one of the most disruptive storms in modern NYC history. It started on a Sunday afternoon and continued overnight, dumping 12-20 inches over the city, with most locations reporting 20 or more inches, including 20 inches at Central Park and 24 inches in my neighborhood of Park Slope, Brooklyn. Thundersnow occurred in downtown Manhattan, sustained winds of 35-40 mph gusted to 60 mph all over the city and up to 70 mph on Long Island, and the pressure dropped to 961 mb at the storm center east of Long Island on Monday the 27th. Having lived in NYC for over 50 years, I would rate this storm 2nd only to the January 1996 blizzard (30 inches in Brooklyn), and this one was even windier. It happened on a Sunday night, and I could not get to work the following 2 days - there was no subway or bus service at all. Here are two videos (may take a full minute to load):

1) A brief view towards Prospect Park, Brooklyn at 1AM on the 27th.

2) My friend meteorologist John Davitt of cable channel NY1 News, NY gives the historical perspective.  

2. January 26, 2011 at Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, NY   A strong winter storm developed as two surface lows, one over western Virginia, and the other over Cape Hatteras, NC interacted with each other in a complex manner . With a thin low-level layer of warm air over 32F surface air along the the northeast coast, sleet, freezing rain and a mixture of these with snow developed over NYC. Strong upper level support allowed enough lift to produce a squall line over the city that produced heavy sleet with lightning and thunder. Although I didn't catch the thunder, here's the sleet with lightning.      

SUN GLARE OVER THE PACIFIC

1. July 31, 2008 over the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.  The satellite images of the sun's reflection were so beautiful that I made a short movie of it. It gives the illusion that the sunlight was darting in and out of the clouds. RGB Movie.