Lightning
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Gold Member Username: Arande2Rattle your ... Missouri Post Number: 2546 Registered: Dec-06 | I'm still a bit excited from it, so I felt like telling people. Yesterday (Saturday), I was out at a camp and we were playing games with mud and water..lots of water. In fact, there was one thing called mud mountain. It was just constantly hosed with four giant hoses and it was our turn to play the other team. Just as we start (one person had already gone up over this big giant mud hill; there are people up there to help them across)...you know we're all wet (I mean we were being sprayed with water and standing/lying in mud and water) and close to each other and basically doing everything you're not supposed to do when it's lightning out. It wasn't much of a lightning storm, in fact, there was barely any rain. Suddenly...BOOM! A huge lightning bolt strikes about 15ft away from me and about 10 others (300 were around the whole lake, some were 5-10ft from the strike)... around the mud mountain. Ok, first, I can't hear at this point, along with many others that were close to the strike. I temporarily lost my hearing which I got back soon after when we got to shelter. Second, We all got jolted with electricity, and a few of us were paralyzed temporalily (I was lucky)...primarily all my friends on my team. At first, I thought they were dead or something. When I saw like 6 people fall down to the ground and start crying...I knew I could've gotten much more of a shock. All the leaders were like, "RUN TO THE CAFETERIA!!!!! GOO!!! HAUL IT! HAUL IT! RUUUUN!!!!!".... So the people who didn't see what happened were all panicking and a lot thought someone got hit by lightning directly and others were touching her (the one who got hit worst)... The worst injury was someone's knee was injured and there were a few burn marks, but we all ended up OK. Later on that night all those people got back from the hospital and although that one's knee was damaged it was healed (I was there to see it, pretty sweet) and now I'm back home. I just wanted to tell you about this unusual experience I had at camp. I hope I didn't bore you, just felt like saying something because I keep thinking of all the other ways it might've happened, such as who was affected, how badly, and the manner it happened. The point is we all were doing GREAT the next day as if it had never happened except maybe the burn marks! Just a few feet closer and who knows the outcome might've been... Yeah, hope it wasn't a bad read. |
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Gold Member Username: BernymacCambodian Post Number: 2989 Registered: Sep-04 | Would be awesome to be that person and not die. To actually be able to tell someone you got shocked, thats just awesome. |
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Platinum Member Username: LklivesPost Number: 10202 Registered: Jan-06 | Lightning can strike U from 10 miles away..NEVER play around with that!...U can't fool Mother Nature! |
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Platinum Member Username: LklivesPost Number: 10205 Registered: Jan-06 | Lightning is essentially a gigantic electrical spark that results from billions of volts of natural static electricity. Lightning is usually associated with thunderstorms and rain. Most meteorologists will agree that ice formation in clouds is a key factor for starting the "electric generator" that produces lightning. There are several theories as to how lightning is produced. It seems the best one so far [called the "Charge Reversal Concept"] requires that falling graupel (small ice pellets) become negatively charged while small supercooled cloud droplets that strike then bounce off the graupel become positively charged. Cloud temperature can affect the "charge sign" of the graupel. If the temperature is below -10C then the graupel takes a negative charge and the supercooled cloud droplets take a positive charge. The supercooled cloud droplets rise on updrafts to the top of the storm while the graupel pellets fall and melt in the lower regions of the storm. Lightning Safety Facts from NOAA. Each second there are 50 to 100 Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Strikes to the Earth world-wide. Most lightning strikes average 2 to 3 miles long and carry a current of 10000 Amps at 100 million Volts. A "Positive Giant" is a lightning strike that hits the ground up to 20 miles away from the storm.Because it seems to strike from a clear sky it is known as "A Bolt From The Blue". These"Positive Giant" flashes strike between the storm's top "anvil" and the Earth and carry several times the destructive energy of a "regular" lightning strike. Thunder can only be heard about 12 miles away under good quiet outdoor conditions. Daytime lightning is difficult or impossible to see under local sun and/or hazy conditions. Night-time "heat lightning" can be seen up to 100 miles away (depending on "seeing" conditions). "Lightning Crawlers" or "Spider Lightning" can travel over 35 miles as it "crawls" across the bottoms or through squall line "frontal" clouds. This rare type of lightning is very beautiful as itzaps from "horizon-to-horizon". However it can turn deadly if it happens to strike the ground at the end of its super long path! {Lightning Crawlers from The Blue!} Radar has detected Lightning "Crawlers" traveling at high altitudes (15000 ft to 20000 ft) as they zap from cloud-to-cloud. Lightning "Crawlers" over seventy five (75) miles long have been observed by Radar! The temperature of a typical lightning bolt is hotter than the surface of the Sun! How big around is a typical lightning bolt? Answer: About the size of a Quarter to Half-Dollar! Lightning looks so much wider than it really is just because its light is so bright! Lightning Strikes create powerful radio waves in the frequency range of 3 KHz (audio, VLF) through 10 MHz (shortwave radio). The VLF (3000 Hz to 30000 Hz) "lightning signatures" can travel around the world, allowing monitoring of world-wide lightning. The shortwave "lightning signatures can travel half-way around the Earth (the night-time side of the Earth). The best region to listen for distant shortwave lightning signatures is from 2 MHz through 7 MHz. After 3 AM local time you can listen to 3 MHz and hear the beautiful dispersion-ringing of the static as it bounces back-and-forth between the earth and ionosphere. It can at times sound like hundreds of tiny bells ringing at once! Red Sprite lightning is a newly-discovered type of lightning that zaps between the 40 mile span between the tops of severe storm clouds to the lower ionosphere "D" layer. Red Sprite Lightning looks like a giant "blood-red"-colored jellyfish having light-blue tentacles. Red Sprite Lightning creates extremely powerful radio emissions from 1000 Hz through VHF. Red Sprite Lightning has been associated with very powerful "Atmospheric Gamma Ray Bursts" Nuclear Radiation from Lightning Strikes! |
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Platinum Member Username: LklivesPost Number: 10206 Registered: Jan-06 | BTW...Lightning can strike the same place twice contrary to popular beliefs... Lightning safety To stay safe in a lightning storm, you can't be outside. Open shelters, such as a picnic pavilion, offer no protection. Don't stand under trees or any other tall objects, as these tend to attract lightning. Golfing, swimming, fishing or playing on an athletic field are very dangerous activities in a thunderstorm. If you're caught in the open, the best thing you can do is crouch down and curl up as small as you can, poised on the balls of your feet. A building is the best protection. A car with a metal roof, however, also offers very good protection - not because of the tires, but because the metal frame of the car diverts the charge away from the people inside. Just don't touch anything metal that leads to the outside of the car. Some people are killed by lightning - almost a hundred in the United States each year. Many more people survive than die from a lightning strike, but that's not the end of the story. People who survive are lucky to be alive but are unlucky, too, because they often have severe or debilitating injuries that can last for a lifetime. Florida has the most combined injuries and deaths of all the states. Some people call a section of central Florida "Lightning Alley" because it has more strikes than anywhere in the United States. So how do you stay safe? Experts recommend the "30/30 Rule." As soon as you see lightning, count the seconds until you hear thunder. If the number is 30 seconds or less, seek shelter. Stay under cover until 30 minutes after the last audible thunder or visible lightning flash. More than half of all lightning deaths happen after a storm has gone by, the National Weather Service says. If you feel your hair standing on end, lightning may be about to strike. Crouch immediately or, if a building or car is nearby, jump into it. Even inside a building, you have to be careful. Stay away from doors and windows. Phone lines, power lines and plumbing can conduct the electrical charge of a lightning bolt into the house, so stay off the phone (unless it's cordless) and don't take a shower or bath during a lightning storm. It's not a bad idea to stay away from your television, either, which has an antenna or cable leading to the outside. |
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Gold Member Username: AdddisorderWest palm, Florida Post Number: 4730 Registered: Jan-06 | even at the outside of the storm its easy to have lightning, needless to say your councilors are morons and are lucky no one really got hurt. although i have had basically the same thing happen to me when i was standing IN my garage, scary. |
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Platinum Member Username: LklivesPost Number: 10208 Registered: Jan-06 | Lightning Can Strike Twice Contrary to the common expression, lightning can and often does strike the same place twice, especially tall buildings or exposed mountaintops. Cloud-to-ground lightning bolts are a common phenomenon--about 100 strike Earth's surface every single second--yet their power is extraordinary. Each bolt can contain up to one billion volts of electricity. About 2,000 people are killed worldwide by lightning each year. Hundreds more survive strikes but suffer from a variety of lasting symptoms, including memory loss, dizziness, weakness, numbness, and other life-altering ailments. This guy was hit TWICE by lightning! Jesus actor struck by lightning Jim Caviezel (left) was struck by lightning while filming Actor Jim Caviezel has been struck by lightning while playing Jesus in Mel Gibson's controversial film The Passion Of Christ. The lightning bolt hit Caviezel and the film's assistant director Jan Michelini while they were filming in a remote location a few hours from Rome. It was the second time Michelini had been hit by lightning during the shoot. Neither of them was badly hurt, according to the film's producer Steve McEveety. Michelini had previously been struck during filming in Matera, Italy, when he suffered light burns to his fingers after lightning hit his umbrella. Describing the second lightning strike, McEveety told VLife, a supplement of the trade paper Variety: "I'm about a hundred feet away from them when I glance over and see smoke coming out of Caviezel's ears." The Passion Of Christ, which was filmed in the ancient languages of Latin and Aramaic, is directed and co-written by actor Mel Gibson and focuses on the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus. And here's a video of a guy getting hit TWICE! http://www.yourfunnymovies.com/videos/Funny_Videos/Guy_Gets_Hit_By_Lightning_Twi ce |
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Gold Member Username: WingmanaliveA pic is worth 1000 posts!! Post Number: 8025 Registered: Jun-06 | I think it's cool how lightning can create glass under the right strike/soil conditions. Something off the net: Mother Nature makes glass each time a large amount of energy is released during a sufficient period of time at the Earth's surface, provided that the soil composition is suitable for making glass. The latter condition is satisfied, for example, by sandy soil, with the resultant natural glass being silica glass named "lechatelierite" after the French chemist Henry Le Chatelier (1850-1936). There are two phenomena that are responsible for making natural glass on Earth: meteorites and lightning. Glass that is made as a result of the collision of a meteorite with the Earth's surface is called meteoritic glass or tektite. Glass (a glassy object, to be exact) that is made as a result of a cloud-to-ground lightning discharge is called a fulgurite (from the Latin "fulgur" which means lightning). Fulgurites come in a great variety of forms and can be viewed as nature's own works of art. It is worth noting that lechatelierite (natural silica glass) is not present in obsidian, a glass-like material associated with volcanic activity. On the other hand, volcanic activity is known to generate lightning which, if it strikes sandy soil, may produce a fulgurite. Silica glass has been also made as a result of nuclear explosions. In 1945, the first nuclear bomb (equivalent to 18,000 tons of TNT) was detonated in the New Mexico desert. The explosion formed a crater 800 yards in diameter, glazed with a dull gray-green silica glass. This glass was named "trinitite" after Trinity Site where the first nuclear bomb test was conducted. |
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Gold Member Username: Thx_3417Bournemouth ... Post Number: 3970 Registered: May-05 | LOL  |
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Gold Member Username: RedlinerWilmington, Ma Post Number: 3830 Registered: Jun-05 | also lightning can strike from the grd and go up as learned in my ee class in college very rare though depends on the polarity of the earth and the storm |
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Gold Member Username: Th3pwn3rPost Number:... Post Number: 3508 Registered: Jul-06 | "also lightning can strike from the grd and go up as learned in my ee class in college very rare though depends on the polarity of the earth and the storm" My uncle said that the very rarity that you speak of happened right in front of him and he said it was nuts. |
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Gold Member Username: The_image_dynamicSan Diego Post Number: 2221 Registered: Dec-06 | Charlie it is actually the opposite of that. Nearly all lightning strikes from the ground up but it happens so fast that it not perceivable to the eye. I was actually going to post this exact thing when I first saw this thread last week but I got a call and forgot about it. |
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Gold Member Username: John_sColumbus, Ohio US Post Number: 1657 Registered: Feb-04 | "In 1945, the first nuclear bomb (equivalent to 18,000 tons of TNT) was detonated in the New Mexico desert. The explosion formed a crater 800 yards in diameter, glazed with a dull gray-green silica glass. This glass was named "trinitite" after Trinity Site where the first nuclear bomb test was conducted." I still have a small nugget of trinitite I picked up off the ground at Trinity Site. It's slightly greenish and about the size of a quarter. The crater no longer exists. Except for the 10ft stone monument the site looks like the rest of the desert for miles around. |
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Platinum Member Username: LklivesPost Number: 10340 Registered: Jan-06 | Thats Los Alamos/Sandia Labs and I worked there for a few years!...has nothing to do with lightning.. |
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Gold Member Username: John_sColumbus, Ohio US Post Number: 1660 Registered: Feb-04 | Yes, we know it has nothing to do with lightning and no, Los Alamos is 160 miles away from Trinity Site. |
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Platinum Member Username: LklivesPost Number: 10348 Registered: Jan-06 | My mistake...to clarify, I meant DEVELOPED (Manhattan project) at Los Alamos labs (site Y), not detonated inside the Labs!...detonation was near Holloman AFB, Alamogordo NM..and White Sands testing grounds..at Trinity as U say.. |
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Gold Member Username: John_sColumbus, Ohio US Post Number: 1662 Registered: Feb-04 | Once a year any interested civilians can line up at the Tularosa Gate at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) and be escorted to Trinity. I was in charge of one of those convoys which is the only reason I was there for a couple of hours once. |
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Platinum Member Username: LklivesPost Number: 10350 Registered: Jan-06 | I was there (MILITARY) for 2 years when I was a young combat/recon/jack of all trades photographer after my return from Nam...I spend MANY days and nights there photographing (still and motion and flying chasers) many various clasified tests both at the Labs and the proving/test range... BTW...people who belive NM has beautiful non humid dry air don't realize thats its BOTH uncomfortable hot and cold there...I love FL weather much more, even though humid... |
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Gold Member Username: John_sColumbus, Ohio US Post Number: 1665 Registered: Feb-04 | After basic/AIT at Ft. Dix in 1968, they sent this draftee to the MP company at White Sands. Logical eh? I saw many wondrous things out in that desert, not least the Milky Way in all its glory. Don't remember seeing much lightning though...sorry Andre, didn't mean to hijack your thread.  I loved the weather in NM, but I was much younger then.... |
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Platinum Member Username: LklivesPost Number: 10362 Registered: Jan-06 | oooh another OB (old bastar*d) like me...lol...30 years military retired 69-99.. U are right about the sky there in the desert, its usually very clear ...obviously little/no rain nor lightning.. I saw some very beautiful sometimes odd things too...but I was a young GI kid too eating "buttons" half the time then too...lol |
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Silver Member Username: Motomattic3Post Number: 570 Registered: Oct-06 | last year i was outside when there was a bunch of lighting going on i was recording it all on my camera and was watching it later and noticed lightning striked the same place 10 times in a row kind strobe light looking hitting then hitting again it was really cool. |
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Silver Member Username: Mrskullz1Brooklyn, New York Post Number: 607 Registered: Feb-07 | war of the worlds! |