Lightning gone mad

I'm posting this to see if someone has seen lightning like this before and because it was the coolest lightning I have ever seen.

I was sitting out on my deck last night looking at the stars when a thunderstorm was moving north of me(at least 5-20 km away moving west to east) I am following two satellite type objects following eachother which was strange enough from me to focus on when sheet lightning appeared directly above me branching out southward. The sky was perfectly clear above me and the lightning branched out covering a good portion of my view. There was probably 3 strikes that were directly above me over about a minute and a half then it was done and the storm moved on like normal.

I have never seen lightning branch out this far from a storm before, and yes I'm one of those people that sit outside whenever there is a storm warning so I have seen a lot of storms and a lot of lightning. It was just a weird night last night, hard to explain.

nothing that lightning strikes surprises me anymore. i remember hearing of a biker getting struck and killed by lightning from a storm that was miles away and on the other side of a mountain. in this case the sky was perfectly clear of any clouds and very sunny and hot.

reply to post by Fathom


He couldn't have been a "biker" at the moment he got struck.

Tyres = insulation.

They must have known he was a biker when they found just his black, smoldering boots.

Lightening can do some awesome stuff eh?

Did it branch out like this one?

www.abovetopsecret.com...

-Kdial1

reply to post by nerbot

Tyres = insulation.

Air is insulation as well, but lightning can shoot through a few miles of it. That inch of rubber isn't going to slow it down.

It's a common misconception, based on people who are told the safest place on the road to be in a lightning storm is your car. That's true, but it's because of the metal surrounding you, not the rubber in your tires. The metal lets the lightning charge drain around you rather than through you, as long as the metal can handle the current.

I agree with Fathom; nothing lightning does surprises me any more. It's the single most awesome example of nature's potential (pun intended) that I know of.

TheRedneck

Thank's for the heads up!

Would being UNDER a car (parked) be the safest place or could the lightening still get ya?

Originally posted by nerbot
Thank's for the heads up!

Would being UNDER a car (parked) be the safest place or could the lightening still get ya?

It would probably use you as the ground. Just stay inside the car. People often get struck while standing under trees because the lightning hits the tree and branches off. I'd imagine the same would happen if you stood next to (or under) a car that was hit.

reply to post by nerbot
As Kruel said, being under a car would get you real warm real quick.

Ultra-high voltages are tricky things. Air, for instance is a conductor until a certain voltage per distance level is reached, then it begins to ionize. That's why you get streamers spinning down from the clouds. The strike is coming from the ground typically, the reverse of the ionized streamer. It happens when the streamer touches ground, creating a pathway that is ionized and therefore can conduct electricity.

Now, any time you are in contact with the ground, that streamer could be touching your head (or anywhere on your body) just as easily as it can touch down on a tree limb. That shoots the strike directly through you and you end up a french fry with shoes on.

Add to that the reason the car protects you is it allows the lightning to go around you through the car. If you're under it, your body has less resistance than the rubber on the tires, so it will take the path of least resistance. That's through you. So, no, don't crawl under your car unless you have some sort of insane desire to be extra crispy.

TheRedneck

reply to post by airteck


Well I live in one of the most storm prone area of Australia (Darwin, Northern Australia) . We have abpout 90 days a year of thunderstorms recorded. I too have seen lightning shoot out from cloud into clear sky, I am pretty sure its a normal phenomena (and I work for the weather bureau). Something that is not very well known, is that wind can affect lighting ribbons, so I am thinking that the out flow from the gust front on the storm may have had an effect on it.