On 7/8/13 7:43 AM, Cqtestk4xs@aol.com wrote:
I've told this one before. I was working on stuff in the yard on a summer
day in FL. I was located about 15 feet form my well and about 10 feet
from the guy wire on one of my towers.
There was a distant (probably at least 15 miles or more away) T-storm
starting to build, but from experience I knew it would be at least 30 minutes
or more if it moved in my direction before it arrived.
Moral of the story: Lightning can strike out of an almost clear blue sky.
Be careful!!
I recall an American Meteorological Society paper that said roughly half
of lightning fatalities in FLorida are "bolts from the blue": more than
10 km from the nearest storm.
It is a fairly common phenomenon, and there's actually photographs of
the lightning stroke emerging from about 1/2 way up the cloud (at
20k-30k ft), going horizontal 10km, and then going 10km vertical down to
the ground.
Most people are smart enough to stay indoors or seek shelter when the
lightning is active over their heads, but the cell passes, the sun comes
out, and they go back outside, and BANG: you've just added to the
Florida human lightning strike statistics.
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