Lightning

[swanbourne]

Eddie

[Webwatchmaker]

Amazing. Perhaps that's how life started.........

Brendan

[TheFlyingBanana]

Fabulous.

I've always found it amazing that the lightning flash we see travels from the ground up to the clouds, not the other way around.

[fraggle42]

It does both doesn't it? Can't remember which end starts first, but a short streamer goes up from the ground, a long one comes down from the clouds and they meet.


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[thieuster]

Amazing. Perhaps that's how life started.........

Brendan

Over the past 20+ yrs we've lived two different houses. Both were struck by lightning, leaving an expensive chaos. In short: the electrical installations (2x) needed to be replaced and a lot of 'machines' with a stand-by modus had died: TV, computer, induction cooking plate with timer etc.

Still, no need to worry. Last time we were hit (2009), the home next door nearly burned down: an old house with a prehistoric electrical installation that caught fire. Luckily the lady's son was at her home and able to put the fire out! It's all what the Americans call 'An act of God'. Chances of getting hit by a bus are bigger.

Menno

[Webwatchmaker]

Over the past 20+ yrs we've lived two different houses. Both were struck by lightning, leaving an expensive chaos. In short: the electrical installations (2x) needed to be replaced and a lot of 'machines' with a stand-by modus had died: TV, computer, induction cooking plate with timer etc.

Still, no need to worry. Last time we were hit (2009), the home next door nearly burned down: an old house with a prehistoric electrical installation that caught fire. Luckily the lady's son was at her home and able to put the fire out! It's all what the Americans call 'An act of God'. Chances of getting hit by a bus are bigger.

Menno

Or winning the lottery to pay for the damage..
Bad luck. I'm sorry to hear it.

Brendan

[Gurmot]

Our house was hit on the night of my stag night 25 years ago. I came home after a heavy night out to find the house in total darkness and thought my mates had pulled all the fuses as a joke so I fumbled around in the fuse box, in the dark and got things back on. It wasn't until the morning when I found the tv, DVD, vcr, stereo and satellite system were all dead that it dawned on me.

A neighbour witnessed it and he swears he saw a ball of lightning hit the satellite dish. He said the ground shook under his feet. He was quite shaken up.

[oldoakknives]

The power involved is scary in the extreme. Mother Nature at her best, or worst.
Ian

[AlphaOmega]

Lightning is incredible - much hotter than the surface of the Sun.

[ralphy]

Fabulous.

I've always found it amazing that the lightning flash we see travels from the ground up to the clouds, not the other way around.

It does both doesn't it? Can't remember which end starts first, but a short streamer goes up from the ground, a long one comes down from the clouds and they meet.

I never knew that, always assumed it was top - down.

I've had several 'too close for comfort' experiences of lightning strikes, but my father was actually injured when one hit his home. He was on the phone at the time, he received burns to his arm where the coiled handset cable ran and the phone cable channeled into the wall blew out of the plaster.

R

[Peck]

And it's oh so common...!

https://www.lightningmaps.org

[-Ally-]

I remember cycling home from university in Delft in the worse lightning storm I've ever experienced, genuinely fearful I'd be struck. Crazy stuff.