Re: OT - I saw lightning strike

badwilson wrote:
Yesterday morning at 10:30 I was driving along in my car in the rain.
All of a sudden, a huge bolt of lightning came straight down from the
sky right in front of me and struck the closest telephone pole! It
couldn't have been more than 15 meters away. It was so big and bright
and sudden, it totally startled me. There was no other lightning
before or after and no thunder. It was like a totally random stray
bolt. Very freaky and I'm sure glad it didn't strike my car!

You're very glad it didn't strike your car! But it is a fact, lightning
does strike higher points first. I was about 17 when I was sitting in my
bedroom reading a book and lightning hit a tree in my parents back yard. I
saw the flash and then the lightbulb in my lamp exploded into pieces. The
electricity went into the ground and followed the leads and blew out the
lamp.

I jumped up and ran to the kitchen to look out back. The tree was smoking.
They made sure it wasn't burning and then arranged to have it taken down the
next week. The lightning had killed that poor old tree. Now, regardless of
what you've heard, lightning *does* strike twice. Two days later the same
tree got hit again by another bolt of lightening.

Jill


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: EMP blast - what would happen really?
    ... Many don't realize how often lightning does strike earth. ... Another myth is that highest objects are struck. ... lightning avoided a 40 foot tree to strike earth some 60 ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Coincidences
    ... In 1899 a man was killed by a bolt of lightning as he stood in his ... Readers had to send in unusual stories based on real life occurrences. ... Walter Kellner from Munich won with his story about flying a Cessna 41 ...
    (soc.culture.irish)
  • Re: Coincidences
    ... In 1899 a man was killed by a bolt of lightning as he stood in his ... Readers had to send in unusual stories based on real life occurrences. ... Walter Kellner from Munich won with his story about flying a Cessna 41 ...
    (soc.culture.irish)
  • Re: Feeding Lightning Bolts back into the grid
    ... each bolt fed back into the grid would net you about ... Hypothetically all you would need is a lightning rod and then a grid ... Not easy to see how to make that capacitor though. ... have to make the spark gap higher than the clouds. ...
    (sci.physics)
  • Re: 30 amp Pedestal question
    ... "Often, cloud-to-ground lightning bolts strike the highest object, like the top of a building or the top of a tall tree. ... than the pole and contains more moisture, it will be zapped and the pole won't be. ...
    (rec.outdoors.rv-travel)
Loading