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When lightning strikes….
- Thread starter Nitefly
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This conversation is about as useful as talking to a bot on Tinder. Great talk buddy.
A young boy died a couple of weeks back after he got struck by lightning (poss floor) Its horrible thinking back as we heard the clap of thunder and we carried on as normal.. But what we heard was the clap of thunder from the lightning that killed a poor little boy...
[..] If I ever do get hit by lightning I hope a) I get an awesome Lichtenberg scar b) live
I'm surprised by the proportion of people struck by lightning who survive. There's enough energy in a lightning bolt to instantly boil rock. 0 to 3000+ C in a millisecond. How often does anyone even think in terms of rock boiling? Melting, yes. Magma and lava. But boiling?
I'm also surprised at the number of people who think that the safest course of action is to stand under a tall object that conducts electricity less easily than their body and that they've lived at least 18 years without being told otherwise. Even earth will conduct electricity when the voltage is high enough, so you don't even want to be near where a lightning strike is at the ground.
Yeah I think it comes down to if it travels through the body and the heart or brain etc vs the surface of the skin. Lightning probably has a wide range of volts/amps too, in the UK we probably get the mild form whereas parts of the US and where there are massive storms maybe produce big badder bolts of lightning. If the clouds are higher up, the charge might have to build up further before it can cross the air gap - cloud to ground.
Yeah I think it was mentioned about the outside of the tree exploding out pieces of wood. I can confirm that after a tree in Palmers Rough in Shirley (next to the path) still bares the scars from a hit around 1989, the days after pieces of the tree were everywhere. The tree doesn't look too good at last time I saw it.
Lightning is racist????
Soldato
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I read about a bloke that got hit by lightning and lived, he felt the static build up a moment before he was hit.. so if you feel static in a thunderstorm use your cat/gamer like reflexes to dive to the ground and erm that's all I got
I was once stood on a golf course under an umbrella on an unstable day. I felt the static build under the umbrella causing my hair to rise. I dropped that bitch like a hot potato and made for the shelter a couple of hundred yards away. On the way, lightning struck a nearby tree, blowing the bejesus out of it.
Since then, I head for appropriate shelter when storms are nearby.
Years back we used to look after repairs for a lot of insurance companies. We had this one client that we couldn't get hold of. After about 3 weeks we sent a letter saying she needed to get in touch within 7 days or we would close her claim.
She eventually called back to say she had been in hospital. She had been turning on the light switch in her living room when lightning struck the pavement outside her house. Hitting the main incoming supply and literally blowing the fuse box off the wall.
Needles to say EVERYTHING was fried..And she was very lucky
She eventually called back to say she had been in hospital. She had been turning on the light switch in her living room when lightning struck the pavement outside her house. Hitting the main incoming supply and literally blowing the fuse box off the wall.
Needles to say EVERYTHING was fried..And she was very lucky
Is it like in Zelda Breath of the Wild where you get a few warning sparks? If I throw a metal keys at someone else and time it just right, maybe they will get hit instead.
I'm not sure lightning cares where you stand tbh, once all the pieces have fitted into place, it's praying time
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-57080526
RIP
He’s not a saint after all?
That was the boy I mentioned above. We heard the thunder and carried on... Its odd to think you know the exact moment a young life was taken.Is it like in Zelda Breath of the Wild where you get a few warning sparks? If I throw a metal keys at someone else and time it just right, maybe they will get hit instead.
I'm not sure lightning cares where you stand tbh, once all the pieces have fitted into place, it's praying time
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-57080526
RIP
It was a great shot.
Just the face
I've been listening to a series of books about ancient Greek religion and mythology. There's plenty of mention of Zeus chucking bolts of lighting at things that seriously trangress their idea of justice.
I'm not saying it was Zeus...but it was Zeus
Definitely. It takes very little to kill if it cross the heart, since the control systems for the heart are electrical. But I'm still surprised some people survive when it "only" flows through their skin. There's still some resistance and there's a ludicrous amount of energy involved. Lightning bolts "boil" air, turning it into plasma. That's what causes thunder - the surrounding air crashes in to fill the resulting vacuum.
Apparently ground to cloud lightning tends to carry much more energy than cloud to ground. But either is more than enough to kill. Even at the lower end, we're talking tens of thousands of amps and tens of thousands of volts. It makes high voltage transmission lines look like a 9V battery.
I hadn't thought of that, but when I saw it mentioned it made a lot of sense. Wood doesn't conduct electricity at all well, so loads of energy would be dumped into the tree very quickly. My guess is that part of the interior of the tree instantly boils, causing a steam explosion.