LOL! I just noticed that Jack "you know what" pass got censored!
LOL! I just noticed that Jack "you know what" pass got censored!
Nobody really knows squat about lightening. Even good Ole B. Franklin knew nothing about it. Would you like to duplicate his kite experiment?
Even what causes lightening is unknown or how the electrical charge builds in the first place.
Lightening is something that is completely unpredictable. As somebody else mentioned previously on the thread, the voltages and amperages are so high, that nothing is really known about the phenomena except timing, i.e., how fast it is, and temperatures at the core. I don't think I would even take the temperatures cited as trustworthy, there's no way to get in there with instruments and measure anything, so it's all either calculated, extrapolated or measured with remote instruments which may not even measure what they think they are measuring.
The voltages and amperages are so high that all knowledge about the insulating properties of materials is meaningless. With voltages and amperages that high, you have to assume that everything is as good a conductor as gold.
Some lightening phenomena have been observed, but never photographed.
A small personal experience with lightening to illustrate how we know nothing about it.
I'm in my den on the second floor of a 2 story home, with the windows open and the screens installed, metal screening. Mid-Atlantic summer, that is hot and humid.
I can hear a thunderstorm in the distance. A faint rumbling getting closer, but still pretty far away.
I'm standing at my desk facing across the room, the open window is to my right and approximately 4' to 5' from me.
Lightening strikes the window screen and arcs across the room directly in front of me and about 3' from me. It is the most intense and beautiful white flash with a slight blue tinge that I have ever seen.
It arcs across the room and hits the wall opposite the window. My wife is in her sewing room on the other side of the wall in a direct line between the strike point on the wall and her open window. It bypasses her and strikes the window screen on the open window. From her hysterical responses I think it exits the house at that point. She could feel the electrical charge on her entire body. Very intense.
I checked the outside of the house and there was no damage. Nothing to indicate a lightening strike.
We've had several houses in the immediate neighborhood struck. One strike was to a brick house and cleaved the brick chimney cleanly from the house for about 3' from the roof line. The chimney was just left canted out from the house. Nobody was hurt and no other damage.
One thing that I cannot understand. In all of the strikes in the neighborhood, only one did any damage to any of the electronics and that strike didn't even hit the house but a tree about 20' from the house. The electronics in the one house only were affected, none of the other houses nearby. Conventional knowledge would seem to indicate that the EMP would fry all the delicate electronics in the houses and the cars outside. That hasn't happened except for the one strike and even then it was limited to the one house.
Those who sacrifice freedom for safety, have neither.
Do not dig your grave with your teeth. (Unknown)
Reminds me of a feeder race from Sandy Hook to Manasquan week prior to MRYC Tri-sail. We were going into some nast storms, so one of the partners went below deck only to come back with life vests and jumper cablesOriginally Posted by Knotty
Problem is lightning doesn't like to play by the rules. As a sailboat owner I've studied the subject at great length. Scared is being in the middle of the bay in a lightning storm with your 35' aluminum mast being the tallest thing around. My friends boat got hit and the path of damage defied logic.
While the bulk of the strike will follow the easiest path, there will often be many additional routes taken as well. If the tree you're tied to gets hit, all bets are off.I was like WTF!? Was new to sailing at the time, but was sure when he hooked up one end to the side stay and threw the other end overboard that it did not seem like something that would work.
"It's like a giant net for catching lazy people"
"You never see anyone crying in a hammock" -Jim Gaffigan on Hammocks
NorseAmerican
I agree with your general point, TeeDee. Although time tested cautions are probably best paid attention to ( like NOT standing under the single tall tree on a golf course), that stuff's just crazy and pretty darn unpredictable. I'll probably never know where it entered my house, only that once it did it kicked booty. With zero open windows or doors, it managed to blow a hole in my living room floor, that's where it finally went to ground. I think any one who had been standing or sitting within a couple of feet of that fire place would have been killed. Killed by lightning in the middle of a completely closed house. Even if they escaped the fire ball that came out of that gas fire place. Crazy! But at the same time, my chair- 3 to 4 feet from the exploding magazine rack and 2" diameter hole through the concrete foundation/slab, was untouched. So, maybe they wouldn't have been killed, unless dieing of fright.
This has been a fascinating thread. It makes me feel terrified to:
A)Endure a lightning storm while camping, and
B)Endure a lightning storm while in my own home.
The answer, then, is to just go camping all the time, because you're damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Nat
Agreed - sorry if anybody got the idea I was recommending anything else, I didn't mean to.
Those who sacrifice freedom for safety, have neither.
Do not dig your grave with your teeth. (Unknown)
My attitude is to not worry about it. How many thunderstorms have you experienced? How many times have you been driving in heavy traffic? You are probably in far more danger in the latter with all of the really crazy drivers out there today. Are you concerned when you drive? Probably not overly concerned, but you probably do drive defensively anyway. Well, it's pretty much the same with thunderstorms. Take sensible precautions and don't do anything really foolish or stupid that you know about. Past that don't really worry about it anymore than you do when driving to work. About all you can do.
Those who sacrifice freedom for safety, have neither.
Do not dig your grave with your teeth. (Unknown)
Originally Posted by BillyBob58 View Post
I agree with your general point, TeeDee. Although time tested cautions are probably best paid attention to ..Naw, I didn't think you were recommending otherwise. I was just saying that, even though you probably put the odds in your favor following time tested cautions, and should do so, you still just never know with that crazy lightning. No guarantees at all. It seems like it can do any thing it "wants" too and sometimes defy apparent logic.
Exactly. Look at all the storms I've been through out side asleep on the ground or hanging from trees/stands, or hiking in the storms. Yet the closest it came to killing me was while I was asleep in my bed in my house! So, I just go camping and try not to think about it other than just paying attention to the basics.
Lady in Florida was killed a few years back. She was a referee at a soccer game; not a cloud in the sky. They decided the bolt that killed her came from a storm cloud more than 10 miles away. She never saw it coming.
I've been in tons of storms in Florida (lightning capital of the US) and have been scared once or twice...OK, maybe three times. But, I take comfort in the fact that I could just as easily be struck down on a clear day in the middle of a soccer field. No sense to worry about that which I can't control. I try to enjoy the show.
Trust nobody!
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks