Zap! NSW town of Lightning Ridge lives up to its name
It almost looks like an opal, the gemstone for which the NSW outback town of Lightning Ridge is famed.
But this weather radar image captured on Thursday above Lightning Ridge is most notable because it shows an awful lot of – you guessed it – lightning.
There were 51,699 lightning strikes detected within a 50 kilometre radius of the town of 2200 residents on Thursday. Of those, 5545 were cloud-to-ground strikes. Yes, the town really lived up to its name.
Image: You seriously couldn't make this up. Source: Thursday's weather radar.
Lightning Ridge, which is 770 kilometers northwest of Sydney, also received its heaviest daily rainfall total since February 2020 as storms passed through, with a very welcome 33.8 mm wetting the ground.
The town is not named, as some believe, after the beautiful streaks of light which are found in its signature black opals – the rarest type of opal. The name is said to date back to the 1870s, when 200 sheep were found dead after being struck by lightning.
Out of this world museum quality Lightning Ridge black opal specimen. from Australia
— Geology Tweets (@GeologyTime) March 11, 2021
Credit: Hopkins Opal#minerals #gemstones pic.twitter.com/DrHgktluCt
Storms and brief bursts of heavy rain are not uncommon in the this part of northern NSW in the warmer months. Indeed, Lightning Ridge receives the bulk of its annual average rainfall of 450 mm in the period from November to April.
But this much lightning concentrated so close to town was definitely impressive. Fortunately, there were no reports of any accidental lamb roasts on this occasion.
Living up to its name today...âš¡ï¸ pic.twitter.com/naqkkwQksW
— Ben Domensino (@Ben_Domensino) March 11, 2021