Hello everyone,
Thunderstorm vs. Fireworks?
Unfortunately, with the very severe weather over here in the West Island Saturday evening, I was unable to attend this display. What you folks witnessed in La Ronde was nothing compared to what had happened in parts of the West Island, the South Shore, parts of Laval, Mirabel, and, as Enkil mentioned, Montreal-North. A powerful line of severe multi-cell thunderstorms raced through much of the island, altogether lasting for a good two hours. Marble-sized hail was reported, many roads were flooded from the vicious pelting rains and the lightning was very intense and, at times, frequent - at one point, a powerful bolt of lightning with a strong electromagnetic pulse struck within 500 meters (one of the loudest thunder crashes I've ever heard from a strike) of my residence and sparked a fire in the property of a nearby home. The downbursts of wind from the first storm were clocked at 85 km/h or more, which, I believe, prompted the isolated power outages all about. Environment Canada also dispatched a team to investigate the damage done in parts of the Mirabel area and they have recently confirmed that a tornado did in fact touchdown from the first thunderstorm that rolled through that evening. Funnel clouds were also spotted hovering over parts of Laval, which is what prompted the advisory in that area.
All that said, the weather did follow closely to what was forecasted: risk of convective showers or thunderstorms (some severe) into the evening and winds coming out from the South to SSW, while humidity levels were moderate to high and temperatures remained around 19 C. The first line of heavy storms erupted not long after lunch time, while those with the cold front in the latter part of the afternoon cleared out when I expected them to: 11:30 - 12 a.m. The sun that appeared later in the afternoon was enough to cause the thunderstorms to fire up explosively in the way they did (they developed in no more than 20 minutes in the late afternoon-early evening). Fred, that is correct: although the wind direction followed closely to what I had expected (smoke moving off mostly to the right), the wind speeds were much lower than anticipated (6-8 km/h) at 10 p.m., and that is for one main reason. When there are thunderstorms occurring close to a given area, they often disrupt the main wind flow patterns and can even alter their direction briefly depending on how close they are to your position. Notice also that at 9 and 11:30 p.m the winds were closer to the expected 20 km/h mark. It was only around 9:30 to about 10:35 that the winds diminished, which tended to happen in conjunction with the arrival of the storms.
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Alright, no more weather rant (apologies if I overdid it) - it's just that it was an exceptional night and experience for many of us. Moving on to my thoughts about the Chinese display. First, thank you, Paul, for the wonderful video - you did fantastic camera work despite the weather conditions, and it was really nice that you captured some spider lightning from time to time! I saw some spectacular ones (though dangerously close) here as well!
This was a fantastic, traditional and artistic display that incorporated a fabulous design in many respects. Synchronization was excellent, and I found the team made it so creative and dazzling compared to the other displays that we've seen - in some ways, some of the sequencing along low level was quite enjoyable in that it was often reminiscent of what Portugal did last year in their display. The mines, in particular, were right on cue with the music, and I personally loved the colorful flares when they had emerged in rows along the bottom at one point. There was never really a loss of balance in this display, and I found the activity at mid to high level was nicely supported by the lower level effects. The colors were really nice and were in a fair mixture throughout. The product quality was simply magnificent, especially the farfalles, and the variety of mines and candles that were employed. The music choice was appropriate and I thought the fireworks went well with each and every one of them - I actually enjoyed a couple of the tracks quite a bit. However, there were some points where I felt that the fireworks weren't doing too much justice with regards to some of the more hyped music. A couple of moments, in my mind, felt a touch redundant in terms of firing patterns, but these were relatively minor anyway.
This was, so far, one of the better displays in terms of organization and fluidity, namely in the way the show was segmented in dedicating 5 parts to representing each of the elements - I thought that was nicely done since it kept the show in perspective, including the parts illustrating both man and women. That said, the transitions were apparent in both rhythm and pace and, ideally, clearly distinguished the more serene parts from that of the hyped. However, the lettering attempts used in the display to briefly introduce the elements, to me, didn't really stand out as much as I was was expecting them to (perhaps because I was waiting for something a little more extraordinary in terms of their appearance, I guess), and it was hard to distinguish some of the letters - the only ones that I could really more and less see were the letters S, A and the I. Due to this, it was a little difficult to know what element was being represented at whatever time, that is, only until the announcer mentioned what was expected during some parts.
As Enkil also mentioned, I, too, had a little bit of trouble grasping the theme of the display in relation to the fireworks, mainly in how the man and woman parts of the show connected to the 5 elements - I simply didn't understand that too well. Also, despite how the show was concocted, I also couldn't quite establish that fundamental relationship between the elements themselves and how they were illustrated through the fireworks. Although I can see what was being attempted with the theme, the connection between the critical components that encompassed the thematic premise left me a little bewildered. The theme isn't exactly original, but the way the components of it are brought together was totally authentic, even though it may have been difficult for me to understand some things.
The effects were quite fascinating, particularly in what was going on at low level. Despite the early start, the show began in a very dazzling way, with many shells of strobes lighting up the sky. There were many effects seen in this display, including shells of hearts, shells of stobes, bow shells and go-getters, dazzling farfalles (quite popular this year, it would seem), mines, mines of swirls and screaming serpents, shells of stars, salutes, shells of salute-terminating stars as well as a number of unusual patterns that I couldn't quite make out (I think a few of the shells exploded into an arrow through a heart, not sure). Finally, there were many colorful flares sometimes seen along the bottom.
The finale was pretty nice, but could have been just a little more vehement towards the end (I know, it takes an exceptional finale to impress me lol). I did, though, really enjoy the constant screaming serpents at low level while everything was being fired at higher altitudes - screaming serpents always make things so epic and stunning, especially if they're a part of a finale. Still, it was a really nice finish to an overall enjoyable and beautifully crafted performance.
Aside from the theme, a truly successful display from the Chinese team, and I wouldn't be surprised if they secure a spot on that podium this year. Like many others stated, especially for me, the lightning really added to the display - took me back to Italy 1994. For me, at this point in time, I think it's a battle between England and China. However, remember that there are 4 participants that have yet to compete.
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It is fortunate that the weather was not so severe near Ile St-Helene, or else, given the severity of the conditions relatively closeby, the display would have easily become another Canada 1995 (the entire evening really reminded me of that night lol). The winds were also a saving grace for this show. Following the display, I found it kind of funny that one of the announcers on Rhythme FM said that this was the first display to have lightning occurring during the fireworks, either in the distance or overhead! They have obviously forgotten Italy 1994, Canada 1995, USA 2002 and, more recently, England 2007.
Though I was not able to catch this display, I am, as always, very grateful for Paul's video.

Thanks to that, I was able to see the display, and from La Ronde's perspective!

A big thank you, Paul!

Just before the display had started, I just turned on Rhythme FM right on time (not knowing that the show would start off early) and listened to the music and tried to envision the display. At the same time, I was watching over La Ronde by keeping a track of radar imagery, and I could clearly see the rains and their intensity throughout in the area for a good period of time before, during, and after the display. Indeed, that was certainly one night to remember in the history of this competition. I should probably add China 2009 to the list. lol
BTW, the forked lightning that captivated everyone periodically during the display is commonly referred to as "spider lightning" or "anvil crawlers". It's a common favorite lightning type , especially in the way it splits the sky - we saw some massive ones over here.

Though I didn't attend, at least I was still able to catch Mother Nature's incredible fireworks.
Trav.
