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Lightning Strikes

No chance of making them pay towards the cost of using the helicopter, I suppose... :(
 
Am I the only person who thinks it is incredibly foolish to think "Thunder storms are forecast, lets climb a mountain" ?

Your genes will survive; theirs, inevitably, will not. Content yourself with this thought.
 
"Ball lightning" explodes, damages houses

Neighbour Lucy Wells, 41, a teacher, was washing her seven-year-old daughter's hair when she saw the lightning through her bathroom window.
Mrs Wells said: "It had been raining and it was about half past two in the afternoon.
"I was in the bathroom and I could see from the bathroom window a ball of lightning.
"It was all within a couple of seconds. Then I heard a massive explosion.
"It sounded like how I would imagine a bomb going off would sound in a war zone. But I knew it was lightning."


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tv-ripped-wall-holes-left-6293090

http://www.yellowad.co.uk/article.cfm?id=6540&headline=Lightning strikes twice in Havering as second house is damaged by fire&searchyear=current
 
Amazing slow-motion video shows lightning strikes in Falmouth during storm
By WBGayle | Posted: April 11, 2016

THIS amazing footage shows lightning striking over Falmouth during yesterday's storm.

The slow-motion video was taken by Harry Chenoweth, who posted it on Facebook last night.

It's already been shared more than 100 times.

http://www.westbriton.co.uk/Amazing...ning-strikes/story-29090066-detail/story.html

I saw some of this lightning. At first I thought it was just flashes from headlights in a nearby car park, but when I heard the thunder too I realised what it was.

I was watching something on iPlayer, and one bright flash made the image disappear. I was worried that something vital had been 'fried', but luckily the Escape key quickly had the machine up and running again. This was probably the first nearby thunderstorm I've experienced with this new computer and wireless router.


EDIT: More pics and a different video:

http://www.westbriton.co.uk/VIDEO-Storm-captured-battering-Falmouth/story-29089773-detail/story.html
 
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Young Australian goalkeeper Stefan Petrovski dies following lightning strike
Eighteen-year-old was struck in freak training incident last month
Player moved to Malaysia this season to further his career
Guardian sport
Sunday 1 May 2016 13.34 BST

A young Australian football player struck by lightning last month while playing in Malaysia, Stefan Petrovski, has died in hospital.
The 18-year-old goalkeeper lost consciousness after being hit as he left a training session for his club, Melaka United, on 5 April.
He was rushed to the emergency department of a Malacca hospital before being transferred to the intensive care unit, where he was initially in a stable condition and breathing with the support of a ventilator.

Fairfax Media reported Petrovski had shown signs of recovery but his condition deteriorated recently.
He was reportedly suffering from a lack of oxygen supply to and swelling on the brain.

“I was shocked when I was told of the news by the assistant to the association’s team manager Datuk Yusof Mahadi,” Khairi Anuar Ahmad, the club’s vice president, was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times.
“He was a dedicated goalkeeper and boasted that he wanted to be the best goalkeeper in the country. He was very jovial, a good boy, liked by his team-mates and always wanted to be better.”

A second player, Muhd Afiq Azuan, was hit in the freak incident but the 21-year-old regained consciousness and was able to be stabilised.

...

http://www.theguardian.com/football...fan-petrovski-dies-following-lightning-strike
 
Young Australian goalkeeper Stefan Petrovski dies following lightning strike
Eighteen-year-old was struck in freak training incident last month
Player moved to Malaysia this season to further his career
Guardian sport
Sunday 1 May 2016 13.34 BST

A young Australian football player struck by lightning last month while playing in Malaysia, Stefan Petrovski, has died in hospital.
The 18-year-old goalkeeper lost consciousness after being hit as he left a training session for his club, Melaka United, on 5 April.
He was rushed to the emergency department of a Malacca hospital before being transferred to the intensive care unit, where he was initially in a stable condition and breathing with the support of a ventilator.

Fairfax Media reported Petrovski had shown signs of recovery but his condition deteriorated recently.
He was reportedly suffering from a lack of oxygen supply to and swelling on the brain.

“I was shocked when I was told of the news by the assistant to the association’s team manager Datuk Yusof Mahadi,” Khairi Anuar Ahmad, the club’s vice president, was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times.
“He was a dedicated goalkeeper and boasted that he wanted to be the best goalkeeper in the country. He was very jovial, a good boy, liked by his team-mates and always wanted to be better.”

A second player, Muhd Afiq Azuan, was hit in the freak incident but the 21-year-old regained consciousness and was able to be stabilised.

...

http://www.theguardian.com/football...fan-petrovski-dies-following-lightning-strike

Sad news.
 
Lightning strikes kill 50 in Bangladesh

More than 50 people across Bangladesh have died after being struck by lightning in the past two days, police say.

Many of the dead were farmers who were killed as they worked in their paddy fields.

Bangladesh is prone to electrical storms but this year they have been particularly severe ...

About 90 people have been killed by lightning since March, compared to a total of 51 people in the whole of 2015, Voice of America (VoA) reported.

The head of Bangladesh's disaster management body Mohammad Riaz Ahmed told VoA he was "indeed concerned" by the rise in the number of deaths.

SOURCE: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36292868
 
Lightning strikes in Europe: One killed and many injured
28 May 2016

[Video]

Lightning strikes in several European countries have killed one man and caused serious injuries as summer storms hit across the Continent.
The man was killed in southern Poland as he was hit by lightning while descending a mountain.

In Paris, a birthday party in Parc Monceau was struck, injuring 11 people, eight of them children. Several are in a life-threatening condition.

Three people were seriously hurt at a youth football match in Germany.

The children injured in Parc Monceau on Saturday afternoon were aged about nine. Six of the injured are in a serious condition.
They were struck after seeking shelter under a tree, police said.

An off-duty firefighter, Pascal Gremillot, happened to be nearby and was able to rapidly administer first aid and heart massages. Officials said the situation would have been much worse if he had not been there.

The referee was one of three adults at the match in Hoppstaedten in the south-west of Germany who suffered serious injuries, police in Kaiserslautern said.
He took a direct lightning hit, suffered a cardiac arrest and was taken to hospital by helicopter.
Another man was also airlifted to hospital and a third was taken by ambulance. All three injured men were in their 40s, the police added.

Initial reports said 35 people had been injured at the match - however, many were taken to hospital as a precaution.
Witnesses at the match said there were no dark clouds and the sky was blue when lightning struck just after the final whistle.

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36405482
 
Police say "many" people have been injured by lightning at a rock concert in Germany -- the second straight year lightning has injured fans at the Rock am Ring festival.

Spiegel magazine, citing police, reported on its website that lightning struck the festival grounds in Mendig in the west German state of Rheinland-Pfalz during a thunderstorm Friday (June 3) and a number of people were injured. It was unclear exactly how many were hurt or how badly.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/c...7393551/rock-am-ring-festival-lightning-again
 
Police say "many" people have been injured by lightning at a rock concert in Germany -- the second straight year lightning has injured fans at the Rock am Ring festival.

Spiegel magazine, citing police, reported on its website that lightning struck the festival grounds in Mendig in the west German state of Rheinland-Pfalz during a thunderstorm Friday (June 3) and a number of people were injured. It was unclear exactly how many were hurt or how badly.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/c...7393551/rock-am-ring-festival-lightning-again
God hates German rock music.
 
Lightning strike kills more than 300 reindeer in Norway
STOCKHOLM (AP) — More than 300 wild reindeer have been killed by lighting in central Norway in what wildlife officials are calling an unusually large natural disaster.

The Norwegian Environment Agency has released eerie images showing a jumble of reindeer carcasses scattered across a small area on the Hardangervidda mountain plateau. The agency says 323 animals were killed, including 70 calves, in the lightning storm Friday.

Agency spokesman Kjartan Knutsen told the AP it's not uncommon for reindeer or other wildlife to be killed by lightning strikes, "but we have not heard about such numbers before."

He said reindeer tend to stay very close to each other in bad weather, which could explain how so many were killed at once. ...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/lightning-strike-kills-more-300-reindeer-norway-095733590.html
 
Speaking to my nan after a particularly ferocious lightning storm on Saturday, she told me that she used to go round and cover all the mirrors in the house during a storm, because apparently they're 'supposed to attract lightning.' :huh: She said she still would if she could, but at ninety-four, by the time she got to them all the storm would have passed. Has anyone else heard of this particular bit of nonsense? Or is it just our family's congenital insanity?
 
... Has anyone else heard of this particular bit of nonsense? Or is it just our family's congenital insanity?

It's not just your family ... Cursory Googling indicates covering or hiding mirrors during a thunderstorm is a longstanding superstition. It appears two explanations are given: (a) the mirrors somehow 'attract' lightning and / or (b) the mirrors' reflective capabilities would allow lightning to ricochet.
 
It appears two explanations are given: (a) the mirrors somehow 'attract' lightning and / or (b) the mirrors' reflective capabilities would allow lightning to ricochet.
:rofl: The wisdom of our recent ancestors! The image of a lightning bolt bouncing through a house, ricocheting off mirrors, terrified residents ducking for cover, is a fun one.
 
Just in case you've ever wondered how far a single lightning discharge can reach and how long it can last ...

Abstract. A World Meteorological Organization weather and climate extremes committee has judged that the world’s longest reported distance for a single lightning flash occurred with a horizontal distance of 321 km (199.5 mi) over Oklahoma in 2007, while the world’s longest reported duration for a single lightning flash is an event that lasted continuously for 7.74 seconds over southern France in 2012. In addition, the committee has unanimously recommended amendment of the AMS Glossary of Meteorology definition of lightning discharge as a "series of electrical processes taking place within 1 second" by removing the phrase “within one second” and replacing with “continuously.” Validation of these new world extremes (a) demonstrates the recent and on-going dramatic augmentations and improvements to regional lightning detection and measurement networks, (b) provides reinforcement regarding the dangers of lightning, and (c) provides new information for lightning engineering concerns.

SOURCE: http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/BAMS-D-16-0061.1

Article on this WMO report: http://www.livescience.com/56134-world-record-longest-lightning-bolt.html
 
In extreme storms, like the one we had here on the 13th, it is very difficult to separate the flashes. At times, the sky was like a fluorescent tube about to burst into full life! :eek:
 
@EnolaGaia that is a facsinating and frightning vision. I wonder how many peta-joules of energy were conveyed down that persistant 200mile river of plasma....?

I'm often struck (pun, intended) by the visual suggestion that the classic Tesla Tower shape, and indeed a conventional lattice mast/power distribution network looks as if it was intended to pluck power from the sky, as opposed to merely conveying it from generated source to consumer.

Based upon simple (and lethal) electromagnetic transducer theory, it's interesting to speculate upon whether the utility generation of electrical power could ever reliably result from harnessing those massive bolts from the blue. I fully appreciate that as with wind and solar, storage (the substantial inability to so do) remains one of the biggest stunbling blocks to such a venture.

But having been able to carry, many years ago, a fluorescent 'tube' aloft, up a darkened high hill, and seen it glow eerily, as it wirelessly plucked it's power straight from the air...and to have seen iron flagpoles, melted like candles....my strong gut feeling is that there is a collosal untapped energy resource, which (given engineers and scientists, with time) could be harnessed and put to society's use.

We all subconsciously know this must be at least partly true: and have possibly all suspected it since the very earliest emergence of human awareness.
 
a collosal untapped energy resource

Andrew Crosse, famed for the alleged spontaneous generation of acarii in his sealed jars, set up a system of wires on poles around his country estate in the Quantocks. Locals were said to have been terrified by the sight of "spirits" dancing on the wires! :oops:

Wikipedia Article on Crosse Here.

"Among his experiments Crosse erected "an extensive apparatus for examining the electricity of the atmosphere," incorporating at one point an insulated wire some 1.25 miles (2.01 km) long, later shortened to 1,800 feet (550 m), suspended from poles and trees. Using this wire he was able to determine the polarity of the atmosphere under various weather conditions. His results were published by his friend George Singer in 1814, as part of Singer's Elements of Electricity and Electro-Chemistry."
 
My grandmother used to cover up the mirrors during a storm.
When I asked her why she said that she knew someone who had been killed by lightning striking a mirror and being cut by the glass.
Now whether this was true I don't know as she also used to tell me about the maggot in the brain story.
 
Eh?.. Never heard of that. In what way would that help I'm wondering. The lightning finds it's way harmlessly out the window? That's whist other lightning is coming in the open window, inviting a head on lightning collision in your room. You don't want to be there when that happens.
 
Man dons aluminum roasting pan hat before running out into thunderstorm to close his car windows. (He is okay, still silly though.)

 
I once knew (slightly) a lady who, with her husband and two teenage children had been struck by lightning, as a group. Her husband was killed and she & her children ended up in hospital for a couple of days for minor burns treatment & observation.
 
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I once knew (slightly) a lady who, with her husbans and two teenage children had been struck by lightning, as a group. Her husband was killed and she & her children ended up in hospital for a couple of days for minor burns treatment & observation.
:eek:
 
Opening the doors is not to let the lightening out but the lightening
can superheat the air in the room opening the doors helps limit
the pressure rise due to this, some years ago a glider was blown to
bits in mid air due to the same thing.
 
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