Last time I had the pleasure of a kick-ass "man's" thunderstorm was 1979 in Costa Rica. We were living in San Jose (captial) which, if I remember rightly, is at either 3,000 or 5,000 ft above sea level. We used to joke that the storms never happened OVER the city but IN it. The thunder was so loud that it would violently rattle glass panes and would had to shout very loudly to be heard. And they weren't these 5 or 10 minute wonders - they would last an hour, easily. And the rain - never seen rain like that: so thick it looked like a grey curtain moving down the road. I remember watching one of these curtains from the balcony one day - there was a guy on a small motorbike tearing up the road trying to outrun this thing. I have no idea how fast he was going, but the rain whooshed past him like he was standing still! The only decent thunderstorm I can remember for Napier - that actually happened over the city, not out at sea, was back in 2005 or so: the first time I recall being woken up at night by a NZ thunderstorm (about 1am if I remember rightly). It was a fairly good show, and I managed to video it.
