Topband: Thunderstorm

[Garry Shapiro]

From: "Guy Olinger, K2AV" <olinger at bellsouth.net>

> Lightning, when it wants to go somewhere, doesn't care about a few
> inches.

A member of our contest club related an amazing and terrifying experience to
me.

Here in coastal California, lightning and thunderstorms are relatively
uncommon events. Examination of the standard lightning contour maps for the
USA confirm this. We may hear/see a few strikes during the most violent of
winter storms but--compared to Florida or even the East Coast, Midwest or
Great Plains, we essentially do not have lightning.

Last year, on a cloudy day, that contester was on his back yard lawn in
Saratoga, CA working with a vertical antenna. There was no sign of storm
activity. His home in a suburban subdivision is almost at sea level and
tucked into a little valley near the bottom of the coastal foothills; It is
not out in the open at all. Apparently without warning of any kind,
lightning struck his tower, leapt some 25 feet to the antenna in hand and
passed through his body. He was thrown 20 feet, knocked unconscious and
stopped breathing for a while. Where he had been standing, the lawn was
burned in the shape of his shoes--and is still that way.

He suffered internal burns and is only now, by persistent effort and
personal courage, regaining the ability to walk normally. He is lucky to be
alive.

What is sobering about this is both the lack of warning and the
improbability--not only of a strike occurring at all, but of it occurring
where it did.

Garry, NI6T