Tag: lightning

Huge Lightning Bolt!

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Click image for appropriate music

The longest single flash of lightning has been captured by satellites of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, recorded and announced by the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization on Tuesday.

The “megaflash” stretched 768 kilometres (give or take 8 kilometres) or 477.2 miles (give or take 5 miles) across parts of the southern U.S. including Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi on April 29, 2020…

The flash in question measures as long as the distance between New York City and Columbus Ohio. Or if you want another, between London and Hamburg.

We’re number one, we’re number one! Or something like that.

Firestorm

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SFGate

“Really horrifying”: Fire clouds spark 710,117 lightning strikes in western Canada in 15 hours.

Storm-producing fire clouds threw out hundreds of thousands of lightning strikes over wildfire-stricken British Columbia and northwestern Alberta provinces in Canada Wednesday and Thursday, bewildering meteorologists…

Of those (710K+ lightning strikes), 597,314 were in-cloud pulses, meaning the strikes didn’t hit the ground. There were 112,803 cloud-to-ground strikes detected over the same area, (Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist with the company Vaisala) said.

“As a whole, Canada doesn’t generally see a lot of lightning — about 90% less than the United States.”

Yup. No need to worry about climate change. Unless you have some understanding of just how interconnected, reactive, cumulative, physical processes in nature can become.

A Derecho roared across the Midwest, Monday

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NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory

On August 10, 2020, NOAA’s GOES-East satellite tracked severe thunderstorms as they raced across much of the Midwest and caused a widespread, fast-moving windstorm called a derecho. According to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center, the derecho traveled from far southeastern South Dakota into Ohio—a distance of about 770 miles—in a span of 14 hours.

The high winds were reportedly so strong that they flipped or blew some tractor-trailers off roadways, downed trees, flattened crops, and caused widespread property damage. Across the Upper Midwest in Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana, more than 1 million homes and businesses lost power. In Iowa, where gusts reportedly topped 100 mph, the damage was even more severe; the highest wind speed recorded there 112 mph near Midway.

When I still was on the road out here in the Southwest, I saw one of these suckers coming just as I was leaving Amarillo, Texas, heading back home. Turned around in a New York minute and made it back to the last motel west of town and got into the office to register for the night…just in time.

Pic of the Day

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Click to enlarge

Thunderstorms almost spoiled this view of the spectacular 2011 June 15 total lunar eclipse. Instead, storm clouds parted for 10 minutes during the total eclipse phase and lightning bolts contributed to the dramatic sky.

Captured with a 30-second exposure the scene also inspired one of the more memorable titles…The lightning reference clearly makes sense, and the shadow play of the dark lunar eclipse was widely viewed across planet Earth in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The picture itself, however, was shot from the Greek island of Ikaria at Pezi. That area is known as “the planet of the goats” because of the rough terrain and strange looking rocks.

Thanks, Ursarodinia

Lightning strikes kill 40 in 24 hours in Bangladesh

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❝ At least 40 people have been killed by lightning strikes in Bangladesh within 24 hours as violent thunderstorms rumbled across the country.

The Bangladesh Meteorological Department said the storms caused disruption across 14 districts including Dhaka. Their spokesman told DPA news agency that most of the fatalities occurred due to a lack of awareness…

Two 20-year-old students were killed during a football match in Dhaka’s Jatrabari neighboughhood. Eight others were injured as the lightning bolt struck the ground.

The Hindu, a daily newspaper, reported that the casualties included a number of children who were playing in open grounds during the rain, but most of the victims were farmers working in their fields.

❝ The rains do help to break the intense heat experienced ahead of the monsoon rains. However, the downpours are often accompanied by thunder and lightning.

❝ Bangladesh’s Disaster Management Department has now launched a campaign to create awareness among people so that they remain inside during thunderstorms. Lightning kills around 300 people each year across the country.

Government responses to disasters like this often seem bogus. There is little in Bangladesh approximating a modern communications network – excepting cellphones, mobiles. Most cellphones in my neck of the prairie come with emergency warning systems turned-on by default. Local or state government can send me a warning on a moments notice. Probably the least expensive implementation of a warning system there can be.

Pic of the day

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Click to enlarge — Reuters/Gene Blevins

Lightning bolts light up night skies during a time exposure of the Daggett airport during a monsoon storm passing over the high desert early Wednesday, north of Barstow, California July 1, 2015.

Wow!

Volcano, ash and lightning

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Volcano, Stefnisson
Click to enlarge — Sigurður Stefnisson

Ash and Lightning above an Icelandic Volcano

Why did a picturesque 2010 volcanic eruption in Iceland create so much ash? Although the large ash plume was not unparalleled in its abundance, its location was particularly noticeable because it drifted across such well-populated areas.

The Eyjafjallajökull volcano in southern Iceland began erupting on 2010 March 20, with a second eruption starting under the center of a small glacier on 2010 April 14. Neither eruption was unusually powerful. The second eruption, however, melted a large amount of glacial ice which then cooled and fragmented lava into gritty glass particles that were carried up with the rising volcanic plume. Pictured above during the second eruption, lightning bolts illuminate ash pouring out of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

Thanks, Ursarodinia

Afflicted with migraine headaches? Stay away from lightning!

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University of Cincinnati researchers have found that lightning may affect the onset of headache and migraines.

These results, published in the Jan. 24, 2013 online edition of the journal Cephalalgia, are the first tying lightning to headache and could help chronic sufferers more efficiently anticipate headache and migraine arrival and begin preventive treatment immediately.

Geoffrey Martin and his father, Vincent Martin, MD, led the study which showed that there was a 31 percent increased risk of headache and 28 percent increased risk of migraine for chronic headache sufferers on days lighting struck within 25 miles of study participants’ homes.

In addition, new-onset headache and migraine increased by 24 percent and 23 percent in participants.

“Many studies show conflicting findings on how weather, including elements like barometric pressure and humidity, affect the onset of headaches,” Geoffrey Martin says. “However, this study very clearly shows a correlation between lightning, associated meteorological factors and headaches…”

“We used mathematical models to determine if the lightning itself was the cause of the increased frequency of headaches or whether it could be attributed to other weather factors encountered with thunderstorms,” says Vincent Martin. “Our results found a 19 percent increased risk for headaches on lightning days, even after accounting for these weather factors. This suggests that lightning has its own unique effect on headache.”

He says that negatively charged lightning currents were also particularly associated with a higher chance of headache.

Nothing definitive derived from the study. Further work needed to focus deeper on cause-and-effect relationships. Of course.

By the same token, I’d suggest staying away from lightning is better for your health – for any reason. 🙂