Posted: 7/11/2008 11:20:44 AM EDT
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Lightning that strikes the ground is rare around here so after reading this article about kids getting killed by lightning it got me wondering. One summer I was in AZ swimming in a lake during an evening lightning storm. It was beautiful and other people were in the small lake too but afterwards I wondered how stupid it was to be in open water in those conditions. Is lightning likely to strike flat open water and if so would it actually be a fatal event? |
It all depends on the location of + and - charges. Wikipedia has a pretty good article about lightning. |
One of my family members (a Nurse) helped treat a guy who sustained lightning injuries while tubing on the Guadalupe river - The lightning actually struck a nearby tree, but he was burned by the large electric current that was induced in the water around him at the instant it struck. Lightning moves a tremendous amount of current through the ground (or water) whenever it strikes, as electrons rush from all directions to the point of the strike. If you happen to be in the path for some of those electrons, burns and/or electrocution is a possibility. |
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Lightning does come from the ground up to the clouds but actually in reverse from the cloud to the ground. I wouldn't advise every being in the water or walking around in a open field during a lightning storm. Since you'll probably be the tallest object your the most likely to get hit. Lightning can also travel long distances. A golfer from my hometown was killed in Flordia while playing getting struck by a bolt from a thunderstorm over 23 miles away when it happened. Thats why sports parks and golf courses have sirens to warn players when the chance of a lightning strike is high eventhough there may be no storms close by. |
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Just had a lightning strike at the house on Monday. Fried a large pine tree in the back yard and messed up electronics in the house. The sucker blew pieces of that pine tree over a 100 feet. I used to work for a dead stock removal company. We picked up lightning-strike killed cattle, horses, etc. It was not uncommon for some 2000 pound bull to be standing in a field surveying his realm only to be struck dead by lightning. We also picked up nearly 1 dozen head of cattle that were huddling under an oak tree when lightning hit the tree and killed them. About 10 years ago we had a strike here at the same house that killed two pine trees. It was practically a clear day. There were few clouds in the sky and a storm was not brewing...or at least you couldn't see it. It was literally "a bolt out of the blue." Lightning is extremely powerful. It isn't anything to be toyed with. |
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Funny, Iwas talking to a friend at work who claimed that you squat down in a field not to mkae yourself a small object, but to allow the electricity to travel safely out of your butt to the ground!!!! I laughed, she got her feelings hurt, so I didn't pursue it any further. Other than to tell her about the Braveheart chimpanzee takeoff. And Great Ball of Lightening from his Arse |