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Weird Weather

The North-West coat of England then... They built places like Blackpool and Morecambe - not to mention the likes of Ayr, Prestwick and Largs further north as resorts precisely because this used to be how the weather used to be. - I can well remember in the 'hot' mid-70s summer old folk in their 80s telling us how must hotter it had been in the 20s and 30s. - And certainly; my granny knew better how to cope with it than my mother did.
 
Last night a house a third of a mile away from ours was struck by lightning. :omg:

No injuries, but the roof and a light switch were damaged.
Techy and I reckon we heard it because there was such a BANG, our furniture shook.

Here's the light switch.
I'd say that, it was just ever so slightly overcooked! Must have been a big shock?
 
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Lightening has mind of it own.

Several years back a lightening bolt struck my older daughter’s neighbor’s yard and did nothing to her house, but then the bolt traveled across the yards and hit my daughter’s house.

My daughter’s house got “ fried “ hurting her kitchen appliances which makes no sense because all houses are supposed to be grounded plus the fuse box to the house is supposed to “ trip “ ?
 
Lightening has mind of it own.

Several years back a lightening bolt struck my older daughter’s neighbor’s yard and did nothing to her house, but then the bolt traveled across the yards and hit my daughter’s house.

My daughter’s house got “ fried “ hurting her kitchen appliances which makes no sense because all houses are supposed to be grounded plus the fuse box to the house is supposed to “ trip “ ?
With such powerful voltages, the bolt would have effectively used the grounding path as the easiest route to go to earth, bypassing the house trip - maybe?
 
Vid at link

Hail batters Spain creating icy urban scenes​

Hail storms, heavy rain and flash flooding have battered towns across Spain, days after a heatwave.

Video recorded in the north of Spain shows icy water running through the streets, past chairs outside a cafe. The south east also saw heavy rain and strong winds.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-66140574
 
Vid at link

Hail batters Spain creating icy urban scenes​

Hail storms, heavy rain and flash flooding have battered towns across Spain, days after a heatwave.

Video recorded in the north of Spain shows icy water running through the streets, past chairs outside a cafe. The south east also saw heavy rain and strong winds.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-66140574
I suppose that the saying 'the rain in Spain goes mainly down the drain,' will now be adapted to fit their present weather situation, to ~ 'the hail in Spain don't go so easily down our drain!' Or, to put it another way, "all hail Caesar!"
 
At 19:33, just now, we had the loudest clap of thunder I've ever heard. I honestly thought summat'd exploded. :omg:

Last time I heard it anywhere near that loud, twice in the last 10 years or so, there'd been lightning strikes.
One blew the roof off a new house and the other hit scaffolding on a building site and killed a workman.

We haven't heard any sirens so it seems we've got away with it this time.
 
At 19:33, just now, we had the loudest clap of thunder I've ever heard. I honestly thought summat'd exploded. :omg:

Last time I heard it anywhere near that loud, twice in the last 10 years or so, there'd been lightning strikes.
One blew the roof off a new house and the other hit scaffolding on a building site and killed a workman.

We haven't heard any sirens so it seems we've got away with it this time.
That deserves a Thunderous Clap!
 
I was wrong - seems several houses were struck a couple of streets away.
One neighbour reckons the lightning was a little too close for comfort -
Its gone through my window downstairs and out the door. No damage tho x
:omg:
 
Our hot months of July and August have the potential for thunderstorms and tornadoes. I always get worried when the wind and rain really picks up especially if the day has been very hot.

I may have mentioned this elsewhere, but in the 90s a tornado travelled several miles and travelled through the field that was across the road from my parents' place (my mom thought that someone was driving a combine down the road, it was so loud).

It travelled southwest and took out my aunt's and uncle's home. You could drive up their laneway and the house looked normal. Around back, it was like a doll house that you could see everything. The whole back was gone.

It then travelled towards Lake Erie, touching down in several places, but since it was rural, most of the of the damage was trees.

I was working at the time (I live about 25 kms from my mom) and I was driving home and the sky was yellow and wind was blowing. I think I saw a funnel cloud, but nothing happened in town. I will never forget the colour of the sky.

I now get nervous when it's really warm and humid, especially if the wind picks up. I am nervous with thunderstorms until they break. Tornadoes are unpredictable. They can form anywhere with the right conditions and can travel and touch down anywhere that is in their paths. There can be no damage or massive damage.

In the 70's there was a massive tornado that virtually wiped out the town of Woodstock Ontario. Homes were flattened.

So if the storm is only a little rumbly, I enjoy it. If it has the enormous cracks like Scargy experienced, I don't like them.

Several years ago a neighbour's home was struck by lightning and caught fire. Luckily no one was hurt and the damage was in the upper floor as that is where it had hit the house.
 
Do you have a tornado warning system in place around where you live?

When a tornado is likely to form has a particular 'signature' about it which can be seen by doppler radar.
 
The lightning struck houses behind ours, very close to where another home copped it a few weeks ago - see my post above. #6
The first was at distance of third of a mile and this one was at a fifth of mile away.

Practicing, getting closer? :thought:
 
Do you have a tornado warning system in place around where you live?

When a tornado is likely to form has a particular 'signature' about it which can be seen by doppler radar.
We do have alerts via cell phones, but I'm not sure if they would alert for tornadoes. Any weather app will say "tornado warning" or "watch".

There is not much you can do except get into a basement in a house, or a safe doorway if in an apartment. You never know where it might touch down or how far it will travel. Damage can be little or massive. You can only go by the weather conditions and be prepared.
 
The lightning struck houses behind ours, very close to where another home copped it a few weeks ago - see my post above. #6
The first was at distance of third of a mile and this one was at a fifth of mile away.

Practicing, getting closer? :thought:
Did you say somewhere that your house is concrete? The reason I ask is that I am just wondering if houses that are, are more susceptible to lightning strikes due to the metal rebar in the concrete. ?
 
Did you say somewhere that your house is concrete? The reason I ask is that I am just wondering if houses that are, are more susceptible to lightning strikes due to the metal rebar in the concrete. ?
Yup, it's concrete. With metal bars inside. Don't tell Thor that.
 
Last Saturday we found ourselves in Wrexham during a terrific rainstorm, with water pelting out of the sky for about an hour. Drove ten miles away to Whitchurch and the roads were dry.
Here's a pic from the Wrexham Leader
16977979.jpg


Curiously Wrexham seems to have experienced similar downpours at least twice in recent months, for no particular reason I can see.
 
Last Saturday we found ourselves in Wrexham during a terrific rainstorm, with water pelting out of the sky for about an hour. Drove ten miles away to Whitchurch and the roads were dry.
Here's a pic from the Wrexham Leader
16977979.jpg


Curiously Wrexham seems to have experienced similar downpours at least twice in recent months, for no particular reason I can see.
We did have a heavy downpour here around 4pm ish iirc.

I don't know about other towns, but what doesn't help is that they seem to have stopped clearing out the road gulleys here. I know at least ten that are jam packed with soil/gravel etc and haven't been done for years.
 
We did have a heavy downpour here around 4pm ish iirc.

I don't know about other towns, but what doesn't help is that they seem to have stopped clearing out the road gulleys here. I know at least ten that are jam packed with soil/gravel etc and haven't been done for years.
Road gulleys? We have the odd storm drain opening for rain run off.
 
I say, you Brits don't speak English sometimes:evillaugh:
Well, of course, that's often a literal fact: many non-English Britons only speak standard English sometimes. Plus, many English Britons also do have their own regional dialect vocabulary.

But....'A Drain': in Scotland we'd often call that a condie or a troch (in Lallans / urban Scots), which is close to traoghadh in Irish/Gaelic. And similarly, the word in Yorkshire is a sough (but in Northumberland, they're called cundys: Northumbrian & Scots language are very similar )

I had no idea what the equivalent word might be for 'drain' in Welsh, so I looked it up...and that word appears to be charthffos (which I would never have been able to guess the meaning of).
 
Ran into this today.
https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/atsc/14/3/1520-0469_1957_014_0284_eaawtb_2_0_co_2.xml

Includes descriptions of electrical activity during a tornado in Blackwell, Oklahoma, on 05/25/1955. Since this was machine-textified, I'll make it more readable:
"As the storm was directly east of me, the fire up near the top of the funnel looked like a: child's Fourth of July pin heel."^"There were rapidly rotating clouds passing in front of the top of the funnel. These clouds were illuminated only by the luminous band of light. The light would grow dim when these clouds were in front, and then it would grow bright again as I could see between the clouds. As near as I can explain, I would say that the light was the same color as an electric arc welder but very much brighter. The light was so intense that I had to look away when there were no clouds in front of it. The light and the clouds seemed to be turning to the right like a beacon in a lighthouse."Montgomery also tells of other eyewitnesses who had different views of the phenomenon, such as Mrs. Carl Sjoberg whose house in the direct path was completely demolished : "She saw lightning coming up from the ground two or three feet high and about,half as wide as adding machine tape, It was a deep blue and forked on the end like a `Y' or like a snake's tongue." According to Montgomery", Lee Hunter, who was 4 mi north of Blackwell, described the tornado as follows: "The funnel from the cloud to the ground was lit up. It was a steady, deep blue light - very bright. It had an orange color fire in the center from the cloud to the ground. As it came along my field, it took a swath about 100 yards wide. As it swung from left to right, it looked like a giant neon tube in the air, or a flagman at a railroad crossing. As it swung along the ground level, the orange fire or electricity would gush out from the bottom of the funnel, and the updraft would take it up in the air causing a terrific light - and it was gone! As it swung to the other side, the orange fire would flareup and do the same."
 
Our hot months of July and August have the potential for thunderstorms and tornadoes. I always get worried when the wind and rain really picks up especially if the day has been very hot.

I may have mentioned this elsewhere, but in the 90s a tornado travelled several miles and travelled through the field that was across the road from my parents' place (my mom thought that someone was driving a combine down the road, it was so loud).

It travelled southwest and took out my aunt's and uncle's home. You could drive up their laneway and the house looked normal. Around back, it was like a doll house that you could see everything. The whole back was gone.

It then travelled towards Lake Erie, touching down in several places, but since it was rural, most of the of the damage was trees.

I was working at the time (I live about 25 kms from my mom) and I was driving home and the sky was yellow and wind was blowing. I think I saw a funnel cloud, but nothing happened in town. I will never forget the colour of the sky.

I now get nervous when it's really warm and humid, especially if the wind picks up. I am nervous with thunderstorms until they break. Tornadoes are unpredictable. They can form anywhere with the right conditions and can travel and touch down anywhere that is in their paths. There can be no damage or massive damage.

In the 70's there was a massive tornado that virtually wiped out the town of Woodstock Ontario. Homes were flattened.

So if the storm is only a little rumbly, I enjoy it. If it has the enormous cracks like Scargy experienced, I don't like them.

Several years ago a neighbour's home was struck by lightning and caught fire. Luckily no one was hurt and the damage was in the upper floor as that is where it had hit the house.
Did you get hit by the Deretcho last year?It came and went in about 15 minutes.
 
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