10 ms·
Extraordinary ‘megaflash’ lightning strikes cover several hundred kilometres
- LeoPanthera 6y agoI did have a quick hunt around YouTube but I couldn't find any video of the March 2019 event. How disappointing, in the age of the security camera and dashcam!
- willvarfar 6y agoSomeone local to me was struck by lightning recently, whilst they were filming the storm on their phone from their porch. The phone screen is split, their arm hurts etc, but the film was recoverable. The lightning was just discernible as just a slight lightening on one frame, apparently. And a simultaneous clap. They were fine, and apparently it was the second time they were struck, although the first time was decades ago when they were caught out cycling.
- DyslexicAtheist 6y ago> They were fine, and apparently it was the second time they were struck we usually don't notice how insulated we are from the dangers of the elements in our modern lives. We even use "struck by lightening" in many "what are the odds" type of comparisons. But risk/luck is all about positioning and exposing yourself to it[1]. What are the chances of getting killed in a plane crash? A lot higher if you're a pilot. Last year I spent several months in the wilderness trekking the Alps. The number of times I was scared shitless was much higher than normal. With every bad weather I had to make a decision of whether to camp under trees (and get killed by a falling branch) or by camping in a clear field (and get struck by lightening). Lying there in my tent and thanking god (which I don't even believe in) for my apparent luck. I pondered this a lot and thought about Roy Sullivan[1] constantly (and airline employees too). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Sullivan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Sullivan
- dhosek 6y ago>The lightning hit the top of his head, set his hair on fire, traveled down, and burnt his chest and stomach. Sullivan turned to his car when something unexpected occurred — a bear approached the pond and tried to steal trout from his fishing line. Sullivan had the strength and courage to strike the bear with a tree branch. He claimed that this was the twenty-second time he hit a bear with a stick in his lifetime.
- bergstromm466 6y ago> The lightning first hit nearby trees and was deflected into the open window of the truck. The strike knocked Sullivan unconscious and burned off his eyebrows and eyelashes, and set his hair on fire. The uncontrolled truck kept moving until it stopped near a cliff edge. this is one lucky dude
- dhosek 6y agoExcept for the lightning. And I guess the bears.
- rtsil 6y ago> whether to camp under trees (and get killed by a falling branch) or by camping in a clear field (and get struck by lightening) Camping under trees also increases your likelihood of being struck by lightning when there's a thunderstorm.
- JJMcJ 6y agoTrees attract lightening. Best to stay away from them during T-storms. Most golf courses have thunderstorm sirens, when it sounds stop, drop everything, head for club house or lay flat on ground well away from trees. The pro golfer Lee Trevino https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Trevino https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Trevino was struck by lightening, so yes, it happens. Suffered back problems from the strike. I believe he lost a year on the tour.
- rapnie 6y ago
- elcritch 6y agoI've heard people who are struck by lightning once are way more likely to get struck again. Mostly it's probably due to the patterns and behaviors they have, but some stories it really seems like there's a sort of hidden effect of being struck by lightning. Probably just happenstance but part of me thinks it'd be interesting if being struck by lightning did cause some odd change. We could call it the lightning touch.
- frabbit 6y agoSpelling suggestion for the title: s/lightening/lightning/
- dang 6y agoFixed now. Thanks!
- raptortech 6y agoThe US and Brazil have leaders that are particularly awful w.r.t. climate change... and then mother nature drops record lightning strikes on both. Dope.
- beervirus 6y agoThere’s no suggestion this has anything to do with climate change.
- rwmj 6y agoIt's in the climate change section of the website. I can kind of see a cause and effect (but knowing very little about the topic this may be completely bogus): You add energy to the weather, clouds are bigger and winds are faster, and that translates to increased lightning.
- Groxx 6y agoThat kind of rationalization can take you to literally any conclusion though. Especially with something as complex as climate change.
- rwmj 6y agoAbsolutely, it is quite likely bogus. I would love to know if the website really meant to connect this to climate change, and if so what the mechanism is.
- Zenst 6y agoWhat is needed is a graph of global lightning strikes increasing inline with global temperature rise and that does not exist, afaik - globally lightning strikes have been consistent year on year. But nowt jumping out google wise and would of thought if lighting increased, we would know. Equally if the strength of lightning increased, that would also be measured and known. However there is data of lightning in some area's increasing, others less so and does seem to balance out, but not clear cut data set to know for sure upon that one.
- beambot 6y agoThat sounds awesome. Do we know of any photos or videos of this event?
- codezero 6y agoI wonder if these are at all related to the "sprite" phenomenon which is observed from space. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(lightning) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(lightning)
- netman21 6y agoWell, proponents of the electric universe theory have an interesting explanation. First of all: lighting is not caused by clouds rubbing together. It is a result of the protective capacitance layer in the upper atmosphere leaking. Sprites are discharges from surrounding space across the ionosphere which trickles further down CAUSING thunderstorms and electric discharge to ground, or lightening.
- abeppu 6y agoCan anyone give a simple explanation of why a lightning strike would travel so far laterally, rather than hitting the ground closer to wherever it started?
- blablabla123 6y agoMaybe when there's a potential difference over a large area, getting regulated at once. In the picture it's more extending over an area than a length.
- kwk1 6y agoJust a guess, but normally lightning is caused by potential difference between the air and ground, so you roughly speaking have two potential surfaces/regions. For this to happen laterally, perhaps it would be enough to have three masses of air separated by two pressure fronts, with the interactions at the air masses' boundaries acting something like charge buildup across parallel plate capacitors. And then, dielectric breakdown happens.
- redis_mlc 6y agoI think the majority of lightning is cloud to cloud. The big events I've seen/felt were at Cape Canaveral (happens every year), but I also saw the Dec. 2019 storm in Jakarta, which was accompanied by tornados - this one was so intense that adults were scared for their lives, a real fireworks display. Both areas have tropical-level energy.
- lostmyoldone 6y agoGood question! I'm not entirely sure, but if we consider that: 1) Air is a decent insulator compared to earth 2) Most thunderstorms are quite close to the ground 3) The electric potential is caused by colliding masses of air. I would have to assume a large volume of air gets a bulk charge that is large in a specific direction but not large enough for a strike to the ground. Then you get a breakdown somewhere that connects a lower potential are to a higher potential area, and because there is a bulk charge, the breakdown simply continues after this initial connection. After that, I don't really get how it can continue for 16 seconds, other than massive amounts of charged in the atmosphere, and partially ionized leftover air from the initial blast being conductive enough to trigger more insulation breakdowns. You can use electron beams to charge acrylic which you then trigger to discharge by various means, and it seems to behave in a similar way but on a much smaller scale. Iirc the small lightning bolts inside the acrylic sometimes continue for a surprising amount of time, even though it's tiny, and the flash also (generally) occur entirely within the insulator even it it's quite long and thin.
- mikeInAlaska 6y agoThe lot next to where I live has a cell tower which gets hit now and then. It is ... way beyond.. loud. The last time it happened all my pets were in front of me within 10 seconds after, as if saying "Pardon sir, we are not programmed for this event! Please advise!". The induced EMF in my long cables like cat-5 throughout the house and my outdoor observatory also takes out motherboards, DSL interfaces and ethernet adapters each time. These days when I hear thunder I start unplugging devices.
- bergstromm466 6y ago> "Pardon sir, we are not programmed for this event! Please advise!" do you have a blog somewhere, or more writing somewhere?
- mikeInAlaska 6y agoI don't, thanks that is very kind.
- lucb1e 6y ago> It is ... way beyond.. loud. Um, I don't know how often this happens but any chance of that damaging your hearing? Because I wouldn't know of any sound I'd even describe like that. The part about it frying motherboards in your house makes me wonder how the cell tower copes with it. I assume it has a lightning rod but so close to that rod as the tower's equipment is, compared to how close your house is, it must fry everything on the tower? Do they come and replace all electronics on it every time?
- kqr 6y agoFortunately, hearing damage is a function of both pressure and time, so your hearing can survive loud bangs as long as they are very brief.
- lucb1e 6y agoI know that it needs time as well, but as the pressure goes up the time might become so short that you could get hearing damage from just that momentary bang. Especially if if's so loud that they describe it with words I would not know to apply to any sound. Hence my question.
- UncleOxidant 6y ago"Stay inside The WMO reiterated the dangers of lightning, and the many lives it claims every year. Previous extreme examples have led to major loss of life: in 1975, for example, 21 people in Zimbabwe were killed when a single flash hit the hut in which they were sheltering" So it didn't really help them to stay inside.
- CapitalistCartr 6y agoI live in the lightning capitol of North America. As an electrician, people ask me how to protect their personal property against lightning. After the usual spiel about lightning arrestors, and surge suppressors, I tell them clearly, there is no real protection against lightning. It goes wherever, unpredictably, and nothing can guarantee you or your possessions. The equipment I've described can lower your risk; that's all anything can do. I should make a recording of that speech.
- aaronblohowiak 6y agoDoes a lightning rod high up and nearby work?
- recursive 6y agoI believe they can lower your risk.
- CapitalistCartr 6y agoDefinitely. The Kennedy Space Center Assembly Building has an excellent lightning rod system and it dissipates charge before a strike damages the building. A pointed, metal, grounded stick is effective. But their system is custom engineered and expensive. And, while it's worked well for them, still no guarantees. About KSC, my inside sales rep for Square D (the best switchgear) worked there for awhile. They needed a contactor, holding up a Shuttle launch, and the nearest one was at Square D HQ in Florence, KY, and could not be delivered today, no way. The KSC rep tells him to hold on. About 30 minutes later, he calls back, "Tell Florence to deliver it to the Guard base there. An F-15 will be on the flight line waiting on it." They do have cool stuff. And the Shuttle launch? It still got delayed.
- dylan604 6y agoWhen your package absolutely positively has to be there, US Air Force.
- raverbashing 6y ago
- mathgenius 6y agoAmazing videos of lightning recorded at 28,500 fps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQKhIK4pvYo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQKhIK4pvYo It really does look a bit like this technique for generating random fractal tendrils: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion-limited_aggregation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion-limited_aggregation
- elcritch 6y agoOn a cursory glance it'd be interesting to know if this record mega-lightning event could be related to the magnetosphere type event mentioned in another HN story: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23658114 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23658114 They're on different dates but perhaps recording shifts in E&M balances based on global weather conditions, or perhaps affected by solar storms.
- at_a_remove 6y agoI have always wanted to get ahold of a struck lightning rod (apparently they must be replaced after a strike) which exhibits the z-pinch.