Posted on 07/10/2004 7:25:54 AM PDT by dukeman
And how expensive would it be to stud the place with lightning rods- say, 60-70' tall (it is described as flat area) - on every couple acres or so?
By my calculations, that means 90,000 people (based on a 300,000,000 population) per year die in lightning strikes. That sounds a bit much to me.
Florida is the lightning strike capital of the world.....
Waiting for the break of day
Searching for something to say
Dancing lights againnst the sky
Giving up I close my eyes
Sitting cross-legged on the floor
25 or 6 to 4
Staring blindly into space
Getting up to splash my face
Wanting just to stay awake
Wondering how much I can take
Should I try to do some more
25 or 6 to 4
Feeling like I ought to sleep
Spinning room is sinking deep
Searching for something to say
Waiting for the break of day
25 or 6 to 4
25 or 6 to 4
You and I had the same reaction to this. When lightning (and tragedy generally) hits, it often is literally a "bolt out of the blue." You need to have your spiritual stuff in order because any given day could be your End Times.
Hmmm Florida has 16 million people having a one in a thousand chance of being struck by lightening. That means 16,000 are struck and 90% (14,000) die. Two have died so far according to the article, so there is ALOT of catching up to do.
Actually I believe the stats are WAY off. Just goes to show, question everything.
See my post #8, based on 16 million. You are right to question "facts".
Perhaps they meant a "lifetime chance." If so, they should qualify their figures.
Yep, especially in the summer. We get big thunderheads that boil up from the interior of the state and then move westward toward the Gulf nearly every day. The clouds are sometimes as dark as the blackest ink you've ever seen. If the rain does get to your spot, it'll be a pounding downpour. Then, and this always surprises visitors and new residents, the sky turns quickly sunny and blue. The storm remnants often turn into beautiful Gulf sunsets.
Even so, assuming a 100 year life span, 900 should be expected to be struck and 810 should die.
According to CDC, the average is 82 deaths per year in the United States. 100 years would net you 8200 deaths and assuming a static population, that's one in about 35,600 (if my arithmetic is right ... always a big if!).
Mr. Sances has a 100% chance of not seeing the sun today. I wonder what his thoughts were when he set off to work that morning?
> ... stud the place with lightning rods ...
Unless you build a closed grid (or Faraday cage), there's
still no assurance that the lightning will pick the rods
over you, although a tall metal tower nearby improves your
odds.
The NWS mantra I hear on our weather radio is:
"If you can hear thunder, you can get struck by lightning."
And you can hear thunder long before the clouds and
rain arrive.
5-mile strikes seem to be fairly common. If you can see
the lightning, and you can count off less than 25 seconds
between flash and bang, that lightning was less than
5 miles away.
Safety advice often repeated here in SW Florida.
Back in 1986, a professional acquintance of mine (not a friend, really) was walking down the beach above the waterline on a fine summer day. Just as he passed beside a woman heading in the opposite direction, a lightning bolt zapped them both dead. The sky was blue and the only clouds were in the distance. I can't remember from the newspaper story whether witnesses in the vicinity had heard thunder rumbling before the strike. Regardless, it was a bolt out of the blue.
p.s. The victim was a not particularly well-liked local trial lawyer.
| Rank | State | Number of deaths |
Number of injuries |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Florida | 345 | 1,178 |
| 2. | North Carolina | 165 | 464 |
| 3. | Texas | 164 | 334 |
| 4. | New York | 128 | 449 |
| 5. | Tennessee | 124 | 349 |
| 6. | Louisiana | 116 | 231 |
| 7. | Maryland | 116 | 134 |
| 8. | Ohio | 115 | 430 |
| 9. | Arkansas | 110 | 245 |
| 10. | Pennsylvania | 109 | 535 |
5.56mm
This happens more often than you think. A lifelong friend of mine was bank finshing at lake Monroe reservoir about five years ago, near a boat launch ramp. He saw the skys getting dark and packed up his gear to leave. As he was placing his gear in the bed of his pick up, which was pretty much the last vehicle left on the flat launch ramp parking lot, he was struck by lightening and killed instantly. Just another 20 seconds and he would have been safe in the cab of his truck.
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