On 7/8/2013 10:56 AM, Jim Lux wrote:
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.
Many years ago (there's that statement again) I was flying from Midland
Mi to Houghton Lake. It's a short hop of 49 nautical miles and yes, I've
told this many times before.
There was only one storm to be seen in any direction with its large
Cumulus right over Gladwin which was directly in our flight path. My
passenger, also a pilot and ham, flew a twin, but he only flew in "good
weather". Me? I flew in anythingI chose to fly straight North which
would put us about 12 miles ahead of the slow moving storm. I would
have preferred to go behind it, but figured we'd probably be safe. At
altitude, big thunderstorms often drop hail which gets tossed out the
top of a sloping storm to fall some ten miles or more in front of the
storm. It may never reach the ground, but may be 3 or 4" or more at
altitude. it's usually tiny or gone by the time it reaches 5000.
From 5000 feet it was very picturesque, even awesome, much as I dislike
that adjective. My friend kept watching the storm and finally asked,
"How close do we dare get to that thing?". It really did give a feeling
of insignificance when looking up at that huge Cumulus, which was
probably topping 40,000 feet, from the little Piper Cherokee 180 which
was putting along a mile above the ground.
He had no more than asked the question when a fat, blue, bolt cane out
of the storm at our altitude and headed straight toward us. It finally
curved down to strike the ground about two miles from us and a good ten
miles from the storm in bright sunlight. All I could say, was " does
that answer your question?" The timing really was as if it was an
answer to his question.
From our position it did put it in perspective, but on the ground it
would have been a storm in the distance with "a bolt out of the blue"
73
Roger (K8RI)
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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