Jump to content
Science Forums

Lightning


Turtle

Recommended Posts

We had some interesting lightning about a week ago. Storms rolled in after sweltering heat. The thing about the lightning in this storm was it sounded like shotguns. Blam Blam. Like two shots going off per strike. It was most unusual.

 

My brother was very good at finding ground strikes. We would wander our cow pasture after storms and he could find the spots where it hit. Small holes, no bigger than a ground squirrel entrance, but if you reached into them, they only went down a few inches (six at the most). I argued with him over it and between the depth of the hole and him pointing out the little clumps of dirt on the ground around us (2-5 feet from the hole) convinced me he was right. I was never as good as he was at spotting these.

 

Note: this pasture was well grazed and more like a 20 acre yard than a field of grass.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A few years ago, while on vacation, the family and I were passing through the Black Hills in South Dakota. We camped just a short drive from Mt. Rushmore. In the eveniings ,after dark, they have a little ceremony where they shine lights on the carved faces. Since we were close, we decided to go see it. As we were driving to the monument, we could see thunderstorms in the distance. By the time we got there, they had moved in closer.

 

Before they light up the faces, they give a presentation talking about the history of Mt. Rushmore. As the talk progressed a cell moved in just behind and above the monument, The resulting lightning flashes would briefly light up or backlight the faces. Every time it happened everyone in the audience would ooh and awe.

 

By the time they got around to turning on the lights, it was anti-climatic

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In the event of finding yourself in a thunderstorm on a golf course the following procedure should enable you to make it to safety without being struck by lightning.

 

Take the number two iron from your golf bag and walk towards the clubhouse holding it as high above your head as possible.

 

This should ensure you are not struck. The explanation is simple: not even God can hit a number two iron.

 

 

Disclaimer: Anyone foolish enough to employ this method will at least demonstrate that adaptive evolution through natural selection is still effective.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I was about 15 I was out swimming in someone's pool who was not home when a thunderstorm rolled in. As I went running home the front edge of the storm menaced over and the really big raindrops started to smack down hard on everything. As I was across the street from home a tree in my yard got struck by a lightening bolt. It exploded with bark shooting off in all directions. While the tree didn't fall, it died and we had to bring it down later on.

 

Across the street our neighbor was in his yard bringing in some stuff from doing yard work. When the bolt struck the tree in my yard he was knocked down and out, and didn't come to for several minutes. He assumes he was hit by the lightening, but showed no physical signs.

 

The attached picture shows where everything happened. I am the blue x running toward the green x (front door). The red x is where my neighbor woke up. And the yellow x is where the tree used to be that took the hit. The fact that I was in the wide open and it hit on both sides of me is as close as I have come to getting hit by lightening.

 

And for those really detailed Hypo junkies, the brown circle is where I built one of the treehouses I have pictured in the gallery.

 

Bill

post-2294-128210093074_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Keep those great stories rollin'! Speaking of rolling & lightning, we have thunderstorms rolling up from the South. The noon news from my location near Portland Oregon reported 2,500 lightning strikes in Southern Oregon in the last 24 hours resulting in 250 small fires.

I may have an opportunity to tape more lightning tonight, and in the mean time there is some learning to do on lightning detectors they use to compile the maps of location & number of strikes.:cup:

Detailed Description:

http://www.nwstc.noaa.gov/METEOR/Lightning/llp.htm

:cup:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Speaking of lightening detectors. I saw documentary on lightening a few years ago where they had this machine that detected lightening all over the globe. And they used the rate of strikes to measure the global temperature. When the temp goes up, so do the strikes. I have never heard of this being applied to global warming studies. Is there merit to it, or was it just hogwash that I was watching?

 

Bill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Speaking of lightening detectors. I saw documentary on lightening a few years ago where they had this machine that detected lightening all over the globe. And they used the rate of strikes to measure the global temperature. When the temp goes up, so do the strikes. I have never heard of this being applied to global warming studies. Is there merit to it, or was it just hogwash that I was watching?

 

Bill

 

I haven't heard of this before; I'll keep an eye out in the related links.

Meanwhile, we need to differentiate between lightning "detection" and lightning "prediction". This link from a lightning prediction equipment company gives some pertinent facts, but I don't see that they mention the specific type and/or design of the equipment.

http://thorguard.com/faq.asp

Possibly "field mills" ?

http://www.kvi.nl/~stokroos/projects/fieldmill/fieldmill.htm

 

:thumbs_up ;) :cup: :) :lightning :lightning :lightning :lightning

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Somewhat tangential, but analogous... Lightning is within each of us at all times with every moment. Within the synaptic clouds, chemically induced electrical strikes occur always. On a neurodendritic scale, these storms are wildly intense, and generate gobs of power inducing signal transmission and propogation of information for everything from moving to basic survival functions. We are not only on the earth, not only part of the earth, but just like it too. :confused:

 

 

I wonder what thunder would sound like in such an environment. Maybe another thread for another time though...

 

 

Why is lightning so prevelant in Tampa Bay? Is there a reason for this that anyone is aware of? Heck, they see so much lightnighg, they've named their hockey team after it. :hihi:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why is lightning so prevelant in Tampa Bay? Is there a reason for this that anyone is aware of? Heck, they see so much lightnighg, they've named their hockey team after it. ;)

 

The SE United States sees a lot of lightning because it sees a lot of thunderstorms. These occur due to the warm moist air from the Gulf and Atlantic ocean moving North and West which collide with the colder dry air moving South and East across the US with the jet stream.

The area in the Midwest US called "tornado alley" is a result of the same collisons, but moved inland because of seasonal effects.

Here's a nice little guide from the National Oceanic and Atmosphereic Administration (NOAA):

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/brochures/ttl.pdf

:eek2: :lightning

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No lightning in my immediate vicinity, however the region continues to receive thousands of lightning strikes. The 2 day total for Oregon & Washington is now at over 14,000 strikes and we have thousands of acres of forest ablaze. Here is a local report on a 400+ acre fire near Mt. Hood, about 45 miles SE of my location in Vancouver USA.

It makes one wonder how lightning caused fires behaved before fire suppression efforts began in the region some 200 years ago.:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Heres my take on it:

Well if there was no fire suppression than everynow and again the forest would be cleaned out, so these days the forest is partly protected and allowed to build up fire fuel. When the fires do eventually happen they end up bigger than the natural ones that happened more frequently years ago.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Heres my take on it:

Well if there was no fire suppression than everynow and again the forest would be cleaned out, so these days the forest is partly protected and allowed to build up fire fuel. When the fires do eventually happen they end up bigger than the natural ones that happened more frequently years ago.

This is indeed a big problem. People make regular fire breaks and end up preventing 'natural' fires for years on end. Problem is, a lot of plants have adapted to this, to such an extent that quite a few plants' seeds can't germinate until they've burnt. Sorta like stomach acids do to fruit pips. If you want to make those seeds germinate that was designed to go through an animal's gut first in order to get widely distributed, you need to soak it in vinegar first. But I digress.

After vegetation have 'built up' beyond the natural two- or three year burn cycle time, when it does burn, it burns a heck of a lot hotter than it would have done, ending up killing all the seeds that were to germinate after a 'cold' fire. The fire obviously kills the host plant, but the seeds were designed to survive. To survive a 'cold' fire, that is. This practice of creating unnatural firebreaks might even be detrimental to the survival of quite a few species of plants, I imagine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yup, funny story of a few years ago.

 

I was in one of our national parks and I found a bird that was injured, its wing was twisted and bent backwards, it couldnt fly and seemed to be in pain. So after chasing it around for a bit I finnally caught it in bucket and took it to a park ranger. When I got to the ranger he told me that he would do nothing for the bird because there they like to 'let nature take its course' I was fairly disgruntled by this but could do nothing about it. We tried to feed the bird and left the bucket in a protected place for the night, but in the morning it was gone.

The next day after that when we where leaving we saw the rangers and also some fire men, doing controlled burns of some of the park. And I thought to myself.. "so much for letting nature take its course"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mysterious as lightning is, one variant has topped the list for ages. Ball lightning! I seem to recall in reading a biography of Tesla, that he regularly produced it & manipulated it onstage during his lectures; and yet the current web information has it little understood.

A web search for 'ball lightning' gave theses results:

Powered by Google

Web Search ResultsResults 1 - 10 of about 1,320,002 for ball lightning

 

This article is as good a place to start the ball rolling as any.

 

Not many people get to see ball lightning, but those who do never forget it. Imagine a glowing orb suddenly materializing in front of you, possibly sizzling or exuding a bluish mist and an acrid smell. The globe may be larger than a beach ball and dart through the air, perhaps hovering occasionally as if considering its next move. The ball may also roll or bounce along the ground, climb utility poles, and skitter along power lines. As it travels, the fiery sphere may destroy electrical equipment, ignite fires, and even singe animals or people.

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20020209/bob8.asp

 

:eek: :lightning :lightning :omg: :umbrella: :secret: :omg: :lightning :cup:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I find Saint Elmo's Fire as fascinating as ball lightening. That is when things get glow after being near a strike. Can be anything. It is really erie. In about 1994 I was working a midnight shift in Cranbury NJ when the building we were in was struck by lightening and the power went out. We ended up with St Elmo's fire on the roof of the building that cast erie shadows on the surrounding buildings that danced around like images from hell for about 15 minutes.

 

Bill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...