Wheww, that lightning bolt that just hit was close!
What have you guys experienced in lightning storms? Any good stories?
What have you guys experienced in lightning storms? Any good stories?
Fun With Lightning
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Friends and family think I'm nuts because I really enjoy a good thunder storm. There's something about the energy and the freshness of the air during and after the storm.
Anyhoo the closest I ever got (which can't have been that close) was when i came downstairs during the night to see how a storm was doing, it was about 3 am and just as I was opening the back door a bolt hit somewhere (must have been close by ) and the brightness of the flash left me blind for about 30 seconds and I actually felt the blast of air from it.
Another time (in my teens) I was staying at my brothers newly built house in Norfolk and was watching a thunderstorm thru a bedroom window and as I scanned nearby fields I watched as lightning struck a large tree, We checked it the following day and the tree was charcoal blackened either side of the now split trunk. quite a thing to see..
Kev
Anyhoo the closest I ever got (which can't have been that close) was when i came downstairs during the night to see how a storm was doing, it was about 3 am and just as I was opening the back door a bolt hit somewhere (must have been close by ) and the brightness of the flash left me blind for about 30 seconds and I actually felt the blast of air from it.
Another time (in my teens) I was staying at my brothers newly built house in Norfolk and was watching a thunderstorm thru a bedroom window and as I scanned nearby fields I watched as lightning struck a large tree, We checked it the following day and the tree was charcoal blackened either side of the now split trunk. quite a thing to see..
Kev
xylaria
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
When I was a kid the lightening conductor for our terrace was next to my bedroom window. I was a asleep one night when that was hit. It was loud enough for my ears to ring, and even though I had my eyes closed, it was blindingly blue light. I got up and opened the curtains then sat in bed to scared to sleep. My hair was standing on end.
Then the really wierd thing happened. A faint blue glow came through the window, looked at me and then left the room back through the window. I rationalised it at the time as my eyes playing at trick, like when you look at a bright light and the retina still registers and image after. I can't remember if the window was open, or not, but the curtains were open. I was eleven at the time, and found out about ball lightening years later, and I cant remember enough detail to be sure that is what I have seen. It wasn't a ghost.
Then the really wierd thing happened. A faint blue glow came through the window, looked at me and then left the room back through the window. I rationalised it at the time as my eyes playing at trick, like when you look at a bright light and the retina still registers and image after. I can't remember if the window was open, or not, but the curtains were open. I was eleven at the time, and found out about ball lightening years later, and I cant remember enough detail to be sure that is what I have seen. It wasn't a ghost.
Want a piece of useless information? You are safest standing on one leg if a lightening bolt strikes the ground within 20 yards or so of you. The cow or sheep will die as a large electric current will travel up one leg and down another.
Hail stones along with the lightening can be pretty scary too.
Hail stones along with the lightening can be pretty scary too.
Nothing nuts about that NG. It's pure primal energy and I love every minute of them. I've never had a call as close as the guys on here, but have spent many a day sitting watching a storm, or enjoying the amazing light that precedes and follows it.
Strange my best Lightning show was in Norfolk too. I sat on a cliff in a little village called Munsley (sp) and watched a thunder storm roll in over the see with the fork lightning coming down and zapping the water. Truly awe inspiring
Red
Red
I had a fantastic evening show one year when I was a child on the south coast of England. Lightening danced all over the clouds a few miles out to sea, within clouds, between clouds, to the ground. One sequence might last 10 seconds or more. Truely amazing. Went on for hours it seemed. Late I mentioned this experience and one or two other people related the same story. They were kids that same day on the coast some time in the 1960s.
Two times I've had a truley frightening experience with lightning, and these were as a grown man just a few years ago!
The first was in the Democratic Republic of Congo when our Squadron deployed to help with extending an apron for aircraft to park on in Bunia to allow more aid into that region. I was on guard one night patrolling the tented area. As we were under French Armee de Guerre protection, it wasn't a guard but a "fire pickett", honest!
I was patrolling the ammo dump and stores area, going past the two french Puma helicopters when one of them got hit by lightning. The flash and bang were instantaneous. I couldn't see for about 30 seconds, and then I retreated to the Ops tent. I was told by the radio op that I should be patrolling. I told him to stick his patrolling as wandering about in a lightning storm with a steel rifle strapped to my chest was not, in my mind, a good idea!
The next day, the Puma was in bits as the mechanics were trying to fix something. I stopped and asked if everything was OK. They said it just wouldn't start and operate correctly. I told them it had been struck by lightning the night before. They apparently knew what to do then and had it up and running in 30 minutes.
Second time was in Canada in 2004. I was on Medman, an exercise held on the prairie in Suffield. It is just rolling prairie for as far as you can see, hardly any trees, and you can see the weather moving in from a long way off. I was crewing a CET, which for those who don't know is a tank with a big digging bucket attatched to it and it is prone to breaking down! Guess what. We broke down!
So my crew mate jumps down and so do I and we look across the prairie in the direction we had just travelled from. The sky was black. Now you may have seen the sky blacken before, but I tell you this was something else. It would make what you have seen look light grey! It was like something from Flash Gordon, I thought the end of the world was upon us!
Suddenly, great gouts of light flashed in the sky, like nothing I'd ever seen before or since. The sheer power was intimidating and yet awe inspiring at the same time. The thing that created the fear was the fact that it was rapidly coming towards us! I jumped onto the CET and removed the radio antennae, the last thing I wanted was the set getting fried. Looking around, the tank was the highest thing around by far!
Then the debate of what we should do started. The weather was rapidly approaching and the flashes and booms were getting closer together. Should we get in the tank? Surely it will get struck, but will the lightning go to ground without affecting us? Or will we get fried aswell? Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck within about 30 metres of us, taking us completely by surprise.
If I never have to experience that ever again, I will die a happy man. The boom was so loud, we both involuntarily screamed like little girls! Amusing now, but at the time we were absolutley terrified! The light was brighter than anything I've ever known. It then happened a couple of more times, each time more frightening than the last as we expected to get hit at any moment. We decided we should have got in the tank, but couldn't do it now as we would definitely be a target sat on top of a 3 metre high tank trying to get the cupolas opened.
Once the lightning storm had passed, we got inside and battened down, seconds later the most almighty rain fall and wind I've ever known came along, and our 18 tonne tank was shaken about like a toy. Possibly the most frightening experience of my life, as I had no control over what was happening.
The first was in the Democratic Republic of Congo when our Squadron deployed to help with extending an apron for aircraft to park on in Bunia to allow more aid into that region. I was on guard one night patrolling the tented area. As we were under French Armee de Guerre protection, it wasn't a guard but a "fire pickett", honest!
I was patrolling the ammo dump and stores area, going past the two french Puma helicopters when one of them got hit by lightning. The flash and bang were instantaneous. I couldn't see for about 30 seconds, and then I retreated to the Ops tent. I was told by the radio op that I should be patrolling. I told him to stick his patrolling as wandering about in a lightning storm with a steel rifle strapped to my chest was not, in my mind, a good idea!
The next day, the Puma was in bits as the mechanics were trying to fix something. I stopped and asked if everything was OK. They said it just wouldn't start and operate correctly. I told them it had been struck by lightning the night before. They apparently knew what to do then and had it up and running in 30 minutes.
Second time was in Canada in 2004. I was on Medman, an exercise held on the prairie in Suffield. It is just rolling prairie for as far as you can see, hardly any trees, and you can see the weather moving in from a long way off. I was crewing a CET, which for those who don't know is a tank with a big digging bucket attatched to it and it is prone to breaking down! Guess what. We broke down!
So my crew mate jumps down and so do I and we look across the prairie in the direction we had just travelled from. The sky was black. Now you may have seen the sky blacken before, but I tell you this was something else. It would make what you have seen look light grey! It was like something from Flash Gordon, I thought the end of the world was upon us!
Suddenly, great gouts of light flashed in the sky, like nothing I'd ever seen before or since. The sheer power was intimidating and yet awe inspiring at the same time. The thing that created the fear was the fact that it was rapidly coming towards us! I jumped onto the CET and removed the radio antennae, the last thing I wanted was the set getting fried. Looking around, the tank was the highest thing around by far!
Then the debate of what we should do started. The weather was rapidly approaching and the flashes and booms were getting closer together. Should we get in the tank? Surely it will get struck, but will the lightning go to ground without affecting us? Or will we get fried aswell? Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck within about 30 metres of us, taking us completely by surprise.
If I never have to experience that ever again, I will die a happy man. The boom was so loud, we both involuntarily screamed like little girls! Amusing now, but at the time we were absolutley terrified! The light was brighter than anything I've ever known. It then happened a couple of more times, each time more frightening than the last as we expected to get hit at any moment. We decided we should have got in the tank, but couldn't do it now as we would definitely be a target sat on top of a 3 metre high tank trying to get the cupolas opened.
Once the lightning storm had passed, we got inside and battened down, seconds later the most almighty rain fall and wind I've ever known came along, and our 18 tonne tank was shaken about like a toy. Possibly the most frightening experience of my life, as I had no control over what was happening.
Add me to the list of people who like thunderstorms. I also like the bit before when the
sky goes menacingly grey and leaves, particularly paler green ones, stand out very
strikingly. I almost didn't get on the bus home yesterday so I could stand and watch
the great big grey cloud come into view but when I got home it was just starting to rain
and the thunder dutifully rumbled along later. Apart from the potential for danger and
being spooked there's nothing I don't like about them and moody grey skies always get
my vote.
I've just been reading in this week's New England Journal of Medicine a letter to the
editor called "Thunderstorms and iPods - not a good idea". Apparently a 37-year old
man had been out jogging, wearing his iPod, when the adjacent tree was hit by
lightning and he was thrown 8ft. He had second degree burns on chest and one leg
and "two linear burns extended along his chest and neck to the sides of the face,
terminating in substantial burns to the ears, corresponding to the position of the
earphones". His eardrums were damaged and part of the jaw was fractured - they had
to do a spot of surgery and grafting to sort everything out, but he's fine now.
Combination of sweat and metal earphones directed the current to and through the
patient's head - fortunately rare
My own close encounter happened not so long ago when I planned to go to the
Enchanted Woodland at Syon Park. I eventually made it, but not on the day that I
originally intended because, while waiting for the overland train into London, I was chatting
to my dad on my mobile and a massive lightning flash whooshed onto the track in front
of me. I had the very strong feeling that it was coming after my phone!
Big blue flash and an enormous boom and everyone screamed and then laughed and
peered over the edge to see if there was any damage. My phone stayed connected
so all my dad heard was the boom and the scream followed by nervous laughter - he
thought there had been a more serious incident. It was cool though, but glad I wasn't
leaning over the track at the time, but was definitely too close for comfort.
Went home instead - once the rain stopped (torrential)
Where are the best places to spot amazing thunderstorms then? Without getting killed!
sky goes menacingly grey and leaves, particularly paler green ones, stand out very
strikingly. I almost didn't get on the bus home yesterday so I could stand and watch
the great big grey cloud come into view but when I got home it was just starting to rain
and the thunder dutifully rumbled along later. Apart from the potential for danger and
being spooked there's nothing I don't like about them and moody grey skies always get
my vote.
I've just been reading in this week's New England Journal of Medicine a letter to the
editor called "Thunderstorms and iPods - not a good idea". Apparently a 37-year old
man had been out jogging, wearing his iPod, when the adjacent tree was hit by
lightning and he was thrown 8ft. He had second degree burns on chest and one leg
and "two linear burns extended along his chest and neck to the sides of the face,
terminating in substantial burns to the ears, corresponding to the position of the
earphones". His eardrums were damaged and part of the jaw was fractured - they had
to do a spot of surgery and grafting to sort everything out, but he's fine now.
Combination of sweat and metal earphones directed the current to and through the
patient's head - fortunately rare
My own close encounter happened not so long ago when I planned to go to the
Enchanted Woodland at Syon Park. I eventually made it, but not on the day that I
originally intended because, while waiting for the overland train into London, I was chatting
to my dad on my mobile and a massive lightning flash whooshed onto the track in front
of me. I had the very strong feeling that it was coming after my phone!
Big blue flash and an enormous boom and everyone screamed and then laughed and
peered over the edge to see if there was any damage. My phone stayed connected
so all my dad heard was the boom and the scream followed by nervous laughter - he
thought there had been a more serious incident. It was cool though, but glad I wasn't
leaning over the track at the time, but was definitely too close for comfort.
Went home instead - once the rain stopped (torrential)
Where are the best places to spot amazing thunderstorms then? Without getting killed!
You guys down south are so lucky; you get the huge ore-inspiring storms that come over from France. Up here in the midlands we only get little home grown ones , I still like watching them though .
I haven't had any close encounters like some of you have. But our bathroom window looks out across the seven river valley, and most of the thunder storms we do get tend to come up there, so we get a good view of them.
The best strike I've ever seen was when I was a kid, I was sitting in the bathroom watching a big storm as it passed to the south of us. It was mostly sheet lightning lighting up the clouds. Then suddenly there was a strike about half a mile away, even behind a double glazed window the thunder was deafening. I saw the lightning hit a small building, and I could see tiles flying through the air silhouetted against the flash, then the power went out over a huge area.
We herd on the radio the next day that a major substation had been hit.
Not as exciting as some of youre stories but it made a big impression on me at the time
, I still like watching them though .I haven't had any close encounters like some of you have. But our bathroom window looks out across the seven river valley, and most of the thunder storms we do get tend to come up there, so we get a good view of them.
The best strike I've ever seen was when I was a kid, I was sitting in the bathroom watching a big storm as it passed to the south of us. It was mostly sheet lightning lighting up the clouds. Then suddenly there was a strike about half a mile away, even behind a double glazed window the thunder was deafening. I saw the lightning hit a small building, and I could see tiles flying through the air silhouetted against the flash, then the power went out over a huge area.
We herd on the radio the next day that a major substation had been hit.
Not as exciting as some of youre stories but it made a big impression on me at the time
I love storms, shame we don't get any BIG storms like they do in the USA over here
oh, useless fact. its not because the car has rubber tyres as to why your safe in a car in a storm, its because you are enclosed in a faraday cage design, so the electric dissipates around you.
My mum, when she was younger, saw a schoolchild get blown 10ft into the air, due to being hit by lightning. poor girl died.
oh, useless fact. its not because the car has rubber tyres as to why your safe in a car in a storm, its because you are enclosed in a faraday cage design, so the electric dissipates around you.
My mum, when she was younger, saw a schoolchild get blown 10ft into the air, due to being hit by lightning. poor girl died.
I love a good thunderstorm. The whole world seems to be charged with energy and "buzzing"
When I was 17 I used to go up to a local spot known as "Top of the World", the highest land for many miles around, to watch any really good storms. I had driven up, parked, and wandered about 1/2 a mile up a green lane to a really stunning vantage point looking down across the Ouse Valley, a massive set of disused gravel pits (by then they were lakes) and I had most of the growing city of Milton Keynes layed out in front of me.
As the storm intensified and grew nearer I saw the lightning hit something several miles away that simply exploded into a huge ball of blue and orange before that whole area of the city went dark as the streetlights and everything else went off. Like a chain reaction in response to this the whole city went black section by section. "Fantastic!" I thought, "I'll be able to see the lightning even better now!"
The storm grew closer and I actually saw one bolt of lightning hit the water of one of the gravel pits and dance along the surface, over a small piece of land and across the next pit before dying away. Thinking that I was perhaps a little too exposed for good sense I decided to stand "Sort of near" a big dead elm tree. I ended up standing there like a muppet in an otherwise empty field, about 30 yards from the elm. My reasoning was that if the lightning struck anything around where I was it would choose the tree and miss me....
The storm soon did just that. The tree was hit by a huge lightning strike. Trouble was (I reasoned afterwards), the tree was soaked by the rain, the ground was soaked by the rain, and I was soaked by the rain. Water conducts electricity rather well...
Result ; I saw the most brilliant blue/orange flash, I experienced a "floating" sensation for what seemed to be a minute or so, I hit the ground, hard, and woke up 3 1/3 hours later.
It was as if I had been out on a "bender". I was wobbly, my vision was all over the shop and my thoughts weren't making much sense (no change there, some might say ) I didn't have a mark on me, but I was seriously "not quite right".
I decided that I was better off not trying to drive home, so I walked the 3 or 4 miles home in the rain.
It was 3 days before I felt "straight enough" to risk driving, and when I had a mate give me a lift back up there to collect my car we walked up to look at the big dead elm tree that I had been close to during the storm. All that remained of it was a charred, shortened trunk and a hell of a lot of broken wood scattered about the field for a radius of about a hundred yards all round the tree ! How on earth I managed to avoid being hit by any of the timber I'll never know, but I do know that as much as I love a good storm I don't want to be THAT close to ones "touch-down" point ever again !
When I was 17 I used to go up to a local spot known as "Top of the World", the highest land for many miles around, to watch any really good storms. I had driven up, parked, and wandered about 1/2 a mile up a green lane to a really stunning vantage point looking down across the Ouse Valley, a massive set of disused gravel pits (by then they were lakes) and I had most of the growing city of Milton Keynes layed out in front of me.
As the storm intensified and grew nearer I saw the lightning hit something several miles away that simply exploded into a huge ball of blue and orange before that whole area of the city went dark as the streetlights and everything else went off. Like a chain reaction in response to this the whole city went black section by section. "Fantastic!" I thought, "I'll be able to see the lightning even better now!"
The storm grew closer and I actually saw one bolt of lightning hit the water of one of the gravel pits and dance along the surface, over a small piece of land and across the next pit before dying away. Thinking that I was perhaps a little too exposed for good sense I decided to stand "Sort of near" a big dead elm tree. I ended up standing there like a muppet in an otherwise empty field, about 30 yards from the elm. My reasoning was that if the lightning struck anything around where I was it would choose the tree and miss me....
The storm soon did just that. The tree was hit by a huge lightning strike. Trouble was (I reasoned afterwards), the tree was soaked by the rain, the ground was soaked by the rain, and I was soaked by the rain. Water conducts electricity rather well...
Result ; I saw the most brilliant blue/orange flash, I experienced a "floating" sensation for what seemed to be a minute or so, I hit the ground, hard, and woke up 3 1/3 hours later.
It was as if I had been out on a "bender". I was wobbly, my vision was all over the shop and my thoughts weren't making much sense (no change there, some might say
) I didn't have a mark on me, but I was seriously "not quite right".I decided that I was better off not trying to drive home, so I walked the 3 or 4 miles home in the rain.
It was 3 days before I felt "straight enough" to risk driving, and when I had a mate give me a lift back up there to collect my car we walked up to look at the big dead elm tree that I had been close to during the storm. All that remained of it was a charred, shortened trunk and a hell of a lot of broken wood scattered about the field for a radius of about a hundred yards all round the tree ! How on earth I managed to avoid being hit by any of the timber I'll never know, but I do know that as much as I love a good storm I don't want to be THAT close to ones "touch-down" point ever again !
By Longstrider:-
<<.... The storm soon did just that. The tree was hit by a huge lightning strike. Trouble was (I reasoned afterwards), the tree was soaked by the rain, the ground was soaked by the rain, and I was soaked by the rain. Water conducts electricity rather well...
Result ; I saw the most brilliant blue/orange flash, I experienced a "floating" sensation for what seemed to be a minute or so, I hit the ground, hard, and woke up 3 1/3 hours later.... >>
Now if you had been standing on one leg..........! What is thought to happen if you are near a lightening strike is that the electric charge spreads through the ground and anything with 2 or more points of contact can act as a short circuit. So, the electricity in this case probably when up one leg and down the other. Anyway according to http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/index.php/t-39051.html keeping your feet close together is probably more reasonable.
<<.... The storm soon did just that. The tree was hit by a huge lightning strike. Trouble was (I reasoned afterwards), the tree was soaked by the rain, the ground was soaked by the rain, and I was soaked by the rain. Water conducts electricity rather well...
Result ; I saw the most brilliant blue/orange flash, I experienced a "floating" sensation for what seemed to be a minute or so, I hit the ground, hard, and woke up 3 1/3 hours later.... >>
Now if you had been standing on one leg..........! What is thought to happen if you are near a lightening strike is that the electric charge spreads through the ground and anything with 2 or more points of contact can act as a short circuit. So, the electricity in this case probably when up one leg and down the other. Anyway according to http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/index.php/t-39051.html keeping your feet close together is probably more reasonable.
