A Great Ball of Lightning.

Must described the thunderstorm that occured at about 2am to 4.30am two days ago on Friday morning. It had been usually hot the several days prior to the storm and even noticed the lack of breeze during the period.

As usual, checked out my global weather site at http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/geo/index.php?satellite=fy2c. A daily habit I have been faithfully doing over the last decade or so with regard to weather, earthquakes including solar weather. (http://www.spaceweather.com/). Then the storm hit.

There was initially intermitten flashes of lighting which could be seen from afar but not heard. This was later accompanied by strong gusts of gale like win whistling as it blew against the window panes. The rain had begun to pound with the wind producing 'lateral rain'.

I was slowly bedding down just past 2am with the florusent night lamp on. Though me eyes were closed, there was what I could best described, a 'flash' coming from the direction of the window facing west. It must have been brilliant enough to register past my eye lids...like a camare flash going off in an instant while your eyes shut.

The brief instant in time was followed by a tremendous roar and cracking sound that reverberated through the entire building where I live. (I usually count the interval between the time of the flash to the sound of thunder as a rough estimate to gauge the distance of the 'strike', i.e sounds travels appoximately 1,100 feet per second with a mile measuring 5,280 feet. Thus a count of 6 seconds from the time of the flash to the sound of the thunder would put the 'strike' roughly about a mile away or 1.6km ).

Mind you, it was have been pretty darn close and estimate of about 500 meters. Both light and sound merged without almost no time elapse. I thought I may have been imagining things but swore I actually felr the shockwave of the strike passing through my entire body. Pretty neat experience.

To give some rough idea....over a million volts of electricity made contact less than a kilometere where I lived. A super charged channel of enery with heat touchiong 30,000 centrigrades and travelling 60,000 miles per second, now that's awsome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning)

But it was not so awesome of the Hendricks brothers of Portuguese Settlement in Ujong Pasir. Their concrete two-storey home was where ground zero was. I would have surely wet my panst and thought the end of time had arrived. I could have only imagine what a 'shock' the strike must have been for the elder brother who was sleeping less than five-meters from where the lightning tore through a larger section of the tiled roof.

The bolt is believed to have struck a wall and blew a 20 centimeter hole in it before bouncing off another wall. To be enveloped in light and shocked silly by this defeaning explosion cum roar and feeling, in almost the same instant, debris from the carnage crashing on and around you. Now that's really freaky and a once in a lifetime event that most of us would not like having. But there is a God...all eight occupanst of the home, including a two month old baby, escaped injuries.

Also, spent both Saturday and Sunday, the 30th and 31st of August, doing Merdeka stories. It was an apt way to spend and celebrate Independence Day. Thought I'd post some shots of Merdeka through the eyes of my G9.

...Happy Birthday Malaysia...

To None I Wish Ill But To All I Wish Peace and Love.