Intense lightning strikes embellished Ottawa’s skies overnight Tuesday.
Mother Nature’s (somewhat) impromptu lightning show was the topic of the day on July 15 for some Ottawa-Gatineau and Algonquin area residents who captured and shared the colourful flashes on social media.
While the bulk of the lightning strikes happened closer to 10 p.m., Environment Canada meteorologist Kate Leclerc says the thunderstorms lasted for hours.
Between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., Ottawa witnessed widespread strikes. As entertaining as they may have been for some, the flashes were intense, consecutive and fierce.
So, what’s really behind the lightning strikes?
On Tuesday, Environment and Climate Change Canada had issued an expansive “yellow warning” alert for heat and a severe thunderstorm in Ottawa. Maximum temperatures were expected to reach up to 36 C.
Tuesday wasn’t as hot as what the weather agency had predicted, but it was certainly hot enough. Temperatures hovered just above 30 C, with humidity making Tuesday feel like 42.
The drastic drop in temperature (from day to night) created “leftover energy”, which resulted in Ottawa’s prolonged overnight lightning strikes, according Connor Mockett, a storm chaser and photographer based out of Winchester, about 40 minutes south of Ottawa.
“Once night came and the temperature dropped from a really hot day, storms were able to form,” Mockett said.
The explanation was simple.
Mockett pointed to the Convective Available Potential Energy (also known as CAPE). It’s a meteorological measure of the atmosphere’s instability and the amount of energy that’s available to fuel developing thunderstorms.
When there’s a lot of that CAPE energy in the atmosphere, that often means you’re going to have a lot of lightning.
“Yesterday there was about 3,000 to 4,000 CAPE in Eastern Ontario,” he says, “which is really high for here.”
Recent smoke may have lessened impact of lightning
Earlier in the week, on Sunday, the national weather agency had issued another yellow warning as smoke from Northern Quebec forest fires made their way to Ottawa.
This decreased air quality, and no one in Ottawa was really thrilled about it.
While there are fires currently in Northern Quebec, it’s actually the fires in the Western Ontario region that are feeding the smoke over Southern Ontario, according to Leclerc.
Regardless, she says the smoke definitely impacted the severity of Tuesday’s thunderstorms.
That’s because the thick layer of smoke in the air worked to inhibit the sunlight and moisture from reaching and feeding into the thunderstorm and lightning.
The science behind it may at times be hard to predict, but Leclerc says the thickness of the air due to smoke is known to impact the frequency of lightning.
As unpleasant as forest fire smoke is, Mockett says it may have “saved us” from an even more severe thunderstorm.
“The smoke acts as a stable air base for storms,” he says, adding that those are fatal for storms.
He explained that the smoke essentially acts as a blanket that you put over the environment. As a result, moisture will be trapped above that layer of smoke, preventing the thunderstorms from forming.
“We’re lucky the smoke was around (Tuesday) because it could have been a very significantly severe weather event including all the hazards like large hail and strong winds,” he said.
Is lightning of this intensity normal?
There are many complex factors that go into answering this question, according to Leclerc, but the short answer is that lightning of this intensity is normal.
For Mockett, who drove to Smith Falls and Perth on Tuesday night to chase the 10 p.m. storm, it’s rare for him to see nocturnal thunderstorm events like the one he did that night, though he also says they are not uncommon.
Editor’s note: What did you experience in Tuesday night’s storm? If you have photos to share, send them to ottawafeedback@postmedia or you can share what you saw in the comments section in this story.
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