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Lightning struck an illegal border crosser Monday night about 10 miles north of the border in the Altar Valley southwest of Tucson. The 38-year-old man was transported to University Medical Center and survived, said Richard DeWitt, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. A Border Patrol agent encountered the group at about 10:30 p.m. Monday near milepost 10 on Arizona 286, he said. The group members said the lightning struck the man at about 8:30 p.m. and that, due to the wet ground, three others were shocked as well, DeWitt said. Members of the group said they carried the 38-year-old man to...

YORK - Flip-flops and faith. Without those two things, Marie Drackert says, she wouldn't be alive today. Drackert was sitting in her York County home July 29, watching the weather on television, when a bolt of lightning came down her chimney and out through her fireplace, frying appliances and sending a jolt of electricity through her body. She believes the rubber in her flip-flops kept her insulated from the strike. Her faith kept her going. "I told my son I'm going to bronze those flip-flops," she said. "I swear."

MAGGIE VALLEY (AP) — Dozens of visitors were rescued Monday from the chair lift at Ghost Town in the Sky after lightning struck the ride. Ten riders made it to the ground safely with the help of a rope ladder system, said David King, sales and marketing manager. Twenty-eight others had to wait until repairs were made. Rescue workers tossed ponchos, for protection from the rain, to those who were stuck. Wendy Whiteside of Knoxville, Tenn., said she and her family were about 10 chairs from the top when the ride stopped. The problem didn't dissuade her from possibly trying...

Mr. Ducklips’In the News!* * * * FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The father of a teenage football player killed by a lightning strike during a high school football game has filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Broward County School Board, saying the school did not provide sufficient warning, the man's lawyer said. The player was struck as he ran off the field when play was suspended during a sudden thunderstorm. James C. Suckalott has to be this man’s lawyer. He and his cohorts, Ernie the Attorney and Sawyer the Lawyer, are experts on everything: mesothelioma; stock market losses; cerebral palsy;...

50-year-old pastor from a church here in San Antonio was killed Tuesday afternoon after he was hit by a bolt of lightning while hiking with his two teenage sons, authorities told News 4 WOAI. The man and his two sons were hiking in the Lost Maples State Natural Area near Vanderpool close to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. It started raining and the family went to seek cover under a cedar tree, Bandera County Sheriff Don Berger said. The father was then hit by lightning and died instantly, officials said. The park is located about 65 miles northwest of San Antonio. Members...

FRESNO, Calif - Crews hoping for wet weather to help combat lightning-sparked wildfires in California faced a new threat Wednesday: too much rain. Flash flood warnings were posted for much of the eastern Sierra Nevada on Wednesday as the National Weather Service predicted a 40 percent chance of rain over a cluster of wildfires in Plumas National Forest. Fire officials worried that crews battling a 22,000-acre blaze about 125 miles northeast of Sacramento could face mudslides on burned-over slopes. That blaze was only about 20 percent contained late Tuesday, after afternoon lightning sparked some new spot fires on the parched...

With no rain or even clouds to warn him of the danger, death came literally out of the blue Thursday to a self-employed landscaper. The killer was a powerful bolt of lightning that cracked through perfectly clear skies. David Canales, 41, of West Miami-Dade, was on the job at a Pinecrest home when the bolt hit. It first seared a tree, then traveled and struck Canales, standing nearby. Experts said Canales was killed by a weather phenomenon fittingly called a ''bolt from the blue'' or ''dry lightning'' because it falls from clear, blue skies.

A Dade landscaper died after being struck by an unusual type of lightning that's stronger, hotter, lasts longer and strikes from clear skies. By TERE FIGUERAS NEGRETE AND LUISA YANEZ With no rain or even clouds to warn him of the danger, death came literally out of the blue Thursday to a self-employed landscaper. The killer was a powerful bolt of lightning that cracked through perfectly clear skies. David Canales, 41, of West Miami-Dade, was on the job at a Pinecrest home when the bolt hit. It first seared a tree, then traveled and struck Canales, standing nearby. Experts said...

Manchester, New Hampshire - Was it a sign from above? Lightning zapped remarks by Republican presidential contender and former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani during a debate Tuesday night, just as he began defending his pro-choice stand on abortion rights against criticism by a Roman Catholic bishop. 'I guess I'm here by myself,' Giuliani quipped after a loud buzz momentarily interrupted the sound system. He turned around, then looked skyward as the audience broke out laughing. 'For someone who went to parochial schools all his life, this is a very frightening thing that's happening right now,' he said. Debate host...

Like a molten thread of white heat, lightning cuts across the grey skies above midtown Manhattan to find the top of the Empire State Building. The storm yesterday afternoon was part of the latest blast of bad weather to hit New York. The murky skies and lightning, seen from across the East River in this dramatic picture, were accompaniedby 72mph winds and a deluge which saw an inch of rain fall in nearby Central Park. There was no damage to the 1,454ft Empire State Building. The lightning rod at its very top absorbs such strikes around 100 times a year....

Close window Published online: 11 May 2007; | doi:10.1038/news070508-12 Lightning spurs hurricanesLink shows storms in Africa can cause havoc in the United States.What creates an Atlantic hurricane? The most devastating ones are spurred by intense thunderstorms in the Ethiopian highlands, according to new research. The link between lightning strikes and hurricane formation should give researchers a heads-up about when a nasty hurricane might form, weeks before it could make landfall in the United States, says Colin Price of Tel Aviv University in Israel. Today, scientists apply various models to predict storm tracks and strength, but only once they form...

Stroke of Good Fortune: A wealth of data from petrified lightning Sid Perkins The lumps of glass created when lightning strikes sandy ground can preserve information about ancient climate, new research indicates. BOLT FROM THE BLUE. When lightning strikes the ground, it fuses sand in the soil into tubular masses of glass called fulgurites (top). The gases trapped in bubbles in that glass (bottom) yield clues to ancient soil and atmospheric chemistry and climate. L. Carion/Carion Minerals, Paris; Navarro-González Worldwide, lightning flashes occur about 65 times per second. Each bolt releases as much energy as is stored in a quarter-ton...

FORT WORTH, Texas, Dec. 15, 2006 – The Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] F-35 Lightning II lifted into the skies today for the first time, completing a successful inaugural flight and initiating the most comprehensive flight test program in military aviation history. “The Lightning II performed beautifully,” said F-35 Chief Pilot Jon Beesley following the flight. “What a great start for the flight-test program, and a testimony to the people who have worked so hard to make this happen.” The most powerful engine ever placed in a fighter aircraft – the Pratt & Whitney F135 turbofan, with 40,000 pounds of thrust...

First Flight of the F-35 occured at takeoff 12:45 CDT from Fort Worth Texas and the Joint Reserve Naval Air Station.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Nearly a year after the disaster, state investigators have concluded that the Sago Mine explosion that left 12 miners dead was caused by a lightning bolt that ignited methane gas underground, a union official said. The mine's owner, International Coal Group Inc., has argued since March that lightning was to blame for the Jan. 2 blast, a theory critics of the company have disputed. The report is to be released Monday, but United Mine Workers officials who helped in the investigation have been briefed on it, Dennis O'Dell, the union's health and safety director, said Wednesday. [Snip]...

Fulgurites! The second is the world record holder.

Photo #1. BANG!!! Huge bolt of lightning strikes near the control tower and a taxiing C-130 Hercules at Balad Air Base, Iraq, on 16 May 2006. Image ID: 060516-F-0185C-001Photographer: Senior Airman James Croxon, United States Air Force (USAF) Big image link: http://www.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/060516-F-0185C-001.jpgCourtesies: http://www.af.mil/news/story_media.asp?storyID=123020502 (source), http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20061026.htm (above image), http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/bifurcated/rivets/77#oct282006 ("Bang") Photo #2. And a few seconds later...BANG!!! Yet another way-too-massive lightning bolt hits near the control tower and a taxiing C-130 Hercules at Balad Air Base, Iraq, on 16 May 2006. Image ID: 060516-F-0185C-005Photographer: Senior Airman James Croxon, United States Air ForceBig image link: http://www.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/060516-F-0185C-005.jpgCourtesies: http://www.af.mil/news/story_media.asp?storyID=123020502 (source), http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20061026.htm (above image),...

See for example this thread first. A woman who was struck by lightning At home! Now that's kinda frightening Struck her in the mouth And departed "down south" Now she's burned on her buns; and teeth whitening?

A WOMAN has suffered severe burning to her anus after being struck by lightning which hit her in the mouth and passed right through her body. Natasha Timarovic, 27, was cleaning her teeth at home when lightning struck the building. She said: "I had just put my mouth under the tap to rinse away the toothpaste when the lightning must have struck the building. I don't remember much after that, but I was later told that the lightning had travelled down the water pipe and struck me on the mouth, passing through my body. It was incredibly painful, I felt...

Nothing on the planet can see the F-22, much less outfight it. But when the F-35 comes online, the two will literally dominate the skies. The F-35 will be able to see virtually hundreds of airplanes at distances far exceeding the scope of previous fighter systems. Tracking distances are classified, but the new aircraft's sight range is said to be twice that of existing fighters (about 40 miles in every direction for existing aircraft).