Australian Weather Calendar

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Lightning strikes Q1 Building Gold Coast, QLD

Picture: Ann Van Breemen

Cover page: Just one more …

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Patience is a photographic virtue. On 29 December, 2008, Ann Van Breemen, long an enthusiastic photographer, watched a storm sweep north towards Queensland's Gold Coast from Coolangatta around 8.30pm. She set her camera on a tripod. Shooting through the open bedroom window on the 33rd floor, she took 20-second exposures for around half an hour.

'It got too close, and rain started coming in the window,' she remembers. 'I was about to pack up when I missed three horizontal flashes that hit the Q1 building. I cursed and thought 'just one more'—and got the shot. Lightning often hits the spire.'

Ann is no storm chaser: 'My equipment is too expensive, I'm lazy and I'd like to live a little longer.' (See October for another of her photographs.)

Lightning (red icons) detected over southeast Queensland for an hour covering the period in which the photograph was taken. The GPATS/TOA (lightning detection data) is superimposed on this satellite image.



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The photograph in the printed calendar is not watermarked, as it is here. The bureau obtained permission to use the image only in the printed calendar. To seek a copy of the image and more information, please contact the photographer.