Chasing and snapping storm drama
With a passion for chasing storms which has led him all the way to the United States, local storm photographer Brendan Gully was impressed with last week’s storm which passed through Ka¯piti on Tuesday night.
The severe thunder and lightning storm caused excitement across the district as it made its way through Ka¯piti from 6-7pm.
He headed down to Paraparaumu Beach at around 5.30pm after watching the storm form on the MetService rain radar.
Gully said when he first arrived many people were out on the beach watching the storm come closer and taking photos.
“We all had to scurry for cover as the rain hit, but after the storm had passed, many people and a handful of other local photographers came back out to watch the lightning show, which only got better and better as the evening went on.”
He said it grew larger as it slowly moved to Ka¯piti, making landfill around 7pm.
“I drove to Paeka¯ka¯riki to try and keep ahead of it, but did still get caught in the heavy rain.
Gully added that: “As it moved south towards Wellington and after the sun had set, the lightning became more visible and easier to capture, with some crazy shapes seen looking
towards Pukerua Bay.”
Later, around 9pm, a second storm formed out to sea just behind Ka¯piti Island.
“This produced the amazing lightning strike with the island silhouetted next to it.”
Chasing storms is a passion for Gully who regularly heads outside rather than hunkering down when a storm comes.
“This storm had all of the great qualities that I normally see with storms in the United States when I chase storms there — a great variety of storm structure and plenty of lightning.
“It was certainly one of the best I have seen here in New Zealand.”
As a photographer Gully enjoys shooting the night sky.
“Storm chasing is the passion that got me started with photography so it was nice to have an easy backyard chase where I didn’t have to travel too far, especially with petrol prices at the moment,” he said.
MetService communications meteorologist Lewis Ferris said the storm took an hour to move through Ka¯piti.
“It was up around Palmerston North before 6pm and it made its way down through Ka¯piti in the hour up until 7pm and then moved towards Wellington.”
Ferris said thousands of lightning strikes were recorded from a number of storms around the country yesterday with around 4000 strikes in the greater Wellington region and around 200 of those strikes over Ka¯piti.
There was also 14mm of rain recorded in the wider Wellington region with Ferris saying it was possible there was more rain that was recorded too.