Posted on 06/03/2009 9:31:18 PM PDT by doug from upland
This is a few cities away from me. In the middle of the night, the thunder was so loud and powerful that it shook our house. I have never heard or felt it like that.
Prayers for her family.
We had lightning strike a house just down the street a few weeks back, left a huge hole in their roof.
A short while ago a thunderstorm moved directly overhead of where I am in Fair Oaks, CA. I couldn’t remember if I’d rolled up my windows in my vehicle. Looking outside I realized that the lightening was directly overhead (also evidenced by the fact that the thunder was immediate to the lightening). I decided that my vehicle being wet inside was less important than my safety and waited (fortunately they were up). One should never tempt fate.
That'll do it. Here in the Midwest we teach from an early age not to make that mistake.
us too it was nutz
I got struck by lightening in a small pool sized pond. Luckily I had on those water shoes with rubber soles or I would be dead I think. It was the most pain I ever remembered. I felt the pain from my feet upwards and I thought “Did I just get bit by a snake” but before I could think “Why would a snake bite both my legs at the same time?” I saw an intense flash of blue light and a few milliseconds later heard the crash. When I got out of the water and under a nearby bridge I noticed my shoes were black from being burnt.
Happened to me 10 years ago. But the strike was on the foundation where the underground utilities entered the basement. I'll never forget the white light that enveloped the house.
$8000 in damage, and the fire department said we were lucky. We were.
Re: Lightning never strikes twice
Posted by SR on April 07, 2004
In Reply to: Re: Lightning never strikes twice posted by ESC on April 03, 2004
: : Where did this phrase originate?
: One reference calls it an old superstition.
: LIGHTNING NEVER STRIKES TWICE IN THE SAME PLACE - “An unusual event never occurs twice under the same circumstances or to the same person. The proverb has been traced back to P.H. Myers (1857). First attested in the United States in ‘The Man in Lower Ten’ (1909) by American writer Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958).” From “Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings” by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996). A second reference says the “familiar (and patently untrue) superstition” was first recorded in print by Hamilton Myers in ‘Thrilling Adventures of the Prisoner of the Border’ (1857).” That must be the P.H. Myers mentioned in the first reference. The “untrue” claim is evidenced by the experience of “Shenandoah Park ranger Roy C. Sullivan, who was struck by lightning on an incredible seven different times between 1942 and 1977. He lived to tell about every one of the seven (a world’s record), and his scorched park ranger hats were put on exhibit.” From “Wise Words and Wives’ Tales: The Origins, Meanings and Time-Honored Wisdom of Proverbs and Folk Sayings Olde and New” by Stuart Flexner and Doris Flexner (Avon Books, New York, 1993).
: We are all aware of stories of lightning striking people (Lee Trevino twice) or causing forest fires. Trevino is a 2-time winner of 3 majors-U.S. Open (1968,71), British Open (1971-72) and PGA (1974,84); Player of Year once on PGA Tour (1971) and 3 times with Seniors (1990,92,94); 27 PGA Tour and 29 Senior Tour wins. He said, “When I am on a golf course and it starts to rain and lightning, I hold up my one iron, cause I know even God can not hit a one iron.”
Prayers for the poor woman and her family, but from her unfortunate decision to stand under a tree, it sounds as if lightning strikes are not all that common in Fontana, CA.
Don’t stand under or even near a tall tree, or anything tall, in an electrical storm; get inside. Don’t go out with a metal framed umbrella over your head either, and don’t continue golfing with metal golf clubs. You might as well be holding a lightning rod.
God wasn’t ready for you yet. :)
No, they don’t seem to be common. This morning, while in the kitchen, I caught the flash out of the corner of my eye and heard an amazing sound. There was a loud snap of an electrical sound followed immediately by thunder. I don’t think I have ever heard it quite like that before.
If it’s really close you can smell it. People aren’t joking about ozone from a “zot.” Closest thing I can compare it to, is burnt garlic toast.
What Causes Lightning?
Lightning in a thunderstorm occurs because the freezing process that takes place at upper levels of the storm separates positive and negative charges. The action of rising and descending air in the updrafts and downdrafts of the storm separates these charged particles further, and allows broad areas of negative and positive charge to develop within a thunderstorm. Lightning results from the build-up and discharge of electrical energy between positively and negatively charged areas of the storm, and between charged portions of the storm and the ground.
The air near a lightning strike is heated to 50,000 degrees F — hotter than the surface of the sun! The rapid heating and cooling of air near the lightning channel causes a shock wave that results in thunder.
Many fires in the western United States and Alaska are started by lightning. In the past decade, over 15,000 lightning-induced fires nationwide have resulted in several hundred million dollars a year in damage and the loss of 2 million acres of forest.
Yikes. RIP.
Sometime in the early morning, our Border Collie put his front legs UP on the bed. This never happens. Must have been the storm — we are in Sierra Madre. He does NOT like lightning/ thunder, and we get a lot of it this close to the mountains.
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