Spring Thunderstorm

4/Sept/2012 – Rare electrical storm across the sky of Christchurch. First time  ever have I ever seen such an amazing sight by the act of nature living in the city (other than the devastating Earth Quake). Clear sky on the Western side as you can see the blue sky reflecting off the windows of the building, and on the South Eastern side you have this amazing thunderstorm cloud engulfing the city.

I rushed outside with my tripod and camera, as I felt something big was coming! It was a strange feeling, as it felt like I was inside a bubble observing this weather event, as there was no rain, no hail & no wind where I was standing.  It was incredible being able to observe and take some good photos of this thundery event. Loud hailing sound could be heard from afar, coming towards me, but as I waited the localised hailing did not come upon me. It was hard to believe that just 5 minutes from where we were that there were golf ball sized hails smashing down to earth, damaging cars & conservatories.

I had the camera in B mode @F22, with shutter open for about 2 minutes exposure at a time. The lighting and thunder went on for about 15 minutes, followed by rain and light hail.