1997 Lightning question

Well, I looked it up.. to no avail. Sometime in 1997 in Ohio(or further but im in ohio) there was a very large lightning storm, no rain, no thunder, just.. lightning. Lots and lots and lots of never ending lightning it seemed.

I was wondering what could cause this? I did some research but found nothing specfically noted to the occourance.

I was wondering if there was an EMP storm or something of the sort? Im not that great with weather i'll admit, so I may just be bitten with the ignorant ant, but I do like to clear him out if I can.

Any information would be nice, Thank you!

If there is lightening, there is thunder. There may have not been rain, but there had to be thunder, you just were not close enough to hear it. I watched a storm one evening for a couple of hours that was a constant violent flash, but I never heard thunder. I was just too far away.

They state lightening can travel 50 miles or more from the source of the clouds it originates.Story back in the 90s a guy was hiking in the mountains and when they found him he was struck by a signal bolt of lightening.There was no storm clouds in the immediate area.They had to get ahold of the national weather service to prove by theory that the bolt traveled over 50 miles to hit him.

Lightening can travel a long way. I've seen bolts that had to be 10-20 miles long.

I've been struck by lightning before.. did the hiker live?

Ok back onto. The bolts were huge yes, but I could smell it all clearly (maybe the air was just ionized to that extent even from a distance)
But what bohers me is the amount of lightning and the fact that I havnt seen an event like it since. I was wondering if anything of the sort happens like that? (often enough to have a name or description)

No the hiker died...They found that single blow to the head the burned his hair.

I live in New Mexico, happens here alllll the time

I love electrical storms. Where the entire field is filled with cloud-to-cloud making a brilliant spider web of energy aloft. Very little if any rain, possibly because the violently churning air that is creating the lightning is also keeping rain from breaking through. Fairly silent as well, although you'll still hear the big ones. I suspect this is because of sound channeling. If there is a significant difference in temperature between the surface and the lightning, the sound will be relatively well confined within the thermal layer in which it originated, spreading horizontally rather than vertically.

[edit on 1-6-2008 by apc]

Coolios, thanks for the reply, I only asked because I havnt seen a storm like it in 10 years, seemed right to ponder.

reply to post by The Bear Man


Heat lightning, isn't that without sound.

Upper air static electricity illumination.

What about UFOs, they look like they are sparking and no one
hears a sound. Its illuminating the air or ether as in a Tesla bulb.

Tesla said the more evacuated a bulb was, the brighter it got with
ac static electricity from his coils. Didn't need a filament.