Lightning fatalities.

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Fri 05/08/2005 07:32

As far as I aware, there has been only one lightning fatality is NZ, a shepard mustering his sheep in Canterbury was killed on his horse.

An interesting link here on lightning deaths in USA. The average annual death toll in the states due to lightning is 67.

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/s2482.htm

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Fri 05/08/2005 08:12

A women here last year got struck inside as the lighting bolt reached through her kitchen window!

A foggy and frosty morning here, -1c... and is that Auckland's first proper frost of the year I see?

C-Nimbus · Unread post by **C-Nimbus** » Fri 05/08/2005 08:57

NZstorm wrote:As far as I aware, there has been only one lightning fatality is NZ, a shepard mustering his sheep in Canterbury was killed on his horse.

how southern man is that?

ever seen the light mate,

nah, but once got hit by it....

good on ya mate

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Fri 05/08/2005 10:16

I've got these big old books with heaps of archived presses in them (you know, 'THE PRESS', the paper) from a while back (late 1800's etc). And it mentions of a person getting killed here in chch by lightning when they were riding a bike in the Bromley (Sp?) area I think. I'll have a look into it.

Cheers

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Fri 05/08/2005 12:35

Yes, you get the odd report in NZ of people being struck by lightning.
Maybe they don't get the full force of it to be survivors.

No frost here in Grey Lynn. For us to get frost here you need a very cold southerly with snow to low levels over the central NI. Last time I saw frost here was last winter with a bit of icing on the car windscreen.

C-Nimbus · Unread post by **C-Nimbus** » Fri 05/08/2005 13:39

Just out of interest my brother in law was caught up in a famous lightning strike at me old school in hamiltron.

It must have been late eighties or early nineties, the school was hamilton boys high and they have a 'quadrangle' with a big tree in the centre.

One day there was a big thunderstorm and some boys took shelter under the tree

and a strike hit it and injured a number of people.

My brother in law was in the vicinity but was not struck directly. But he did get some of the action from what i understand. consequently now he is often thirsty (apparantly a common sympton of being 'in the region') especially at nite time when he has to get up routinely to have glasses of water.

Now that i think of it, when i was very young (about 13) my mother had a friend whose son was a vegetable after being hit by lightning as well. Apparently lightning burns you from the inside out????

scary stuff anyway....

Oh and another one!, when i first got into storms and what not, i was following one out at raglan that was striking literally in front of us. My g/f had to pull me back cos my hair was standing on end!!!!

reckon that Cb was lining me up, but i just cant keep still

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Fri 05/08/2005 19:41

This car was damaged by lightning.

http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=5&sid=203133

Generaly though, a car is considered a safe place in lightning.

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Fri 05/08/2005 20:11

NZstorm wrote:This car was damaged by lightning.

http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=5&sid=203133

Generaly though, a car is considered a safe place in lightning.

I was sitting in the Land Cruiser on a mountain a while ago with lightning striking not far away, and I was counting on what you just said as being true!

I wasn't at all confident about that though. Luckily I never found out, one way or the other!

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Fri 05/08/2005 20:21

My driving strategy in close CG lightning would be to slow down. If your vehicle does get hit, you are less likely to run off the road.

I heard a lightning expert talking on the radio whilst in the US. This guy said that a lightning strike on a car is likely to seize up the motor as it would burn out the electronics as well as burning the paint work. But cars are safe he said.

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Fri 05/08/2005 20:48

Not a fatality, but I remember watching a spectacular electrical storm from from my Uni hostel room in Hamilton in October 1987. After one cg strike I saw smoke rising in the distance. Soon after I heard the radio new say that 2 boys at Hamilton Boys High (in the direction of the smoke)had been struck by lightning when they sheltered from the rain under a large tree (not a good idea in thunderstorms), and had to be treated in hospital.

NZ Thunderstorm Soc · Fri 05/08/2005 21:10

NZstorm wrote:As far as I aware, there has been only one lightning fatality is NZ, a shepard mustering his sheep in Canterbury was killed on his horse.

What about those 2 guys about 2 or 3 years back on the Rootbourn track or possibly another track near Queenstown?

JohnGaul
NZTS

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Sat 06/08/2005 10:01

NZstorm wrote:My driving strategy in close CG lightning would be to slow down. If your vehicle does get hit, you are less likely to run off the road.

I heard a lightning expert talking on the radio whilst in the US. This guy said that a lightning strike on a car is likely to seize up the motor as it would burn out the electronics as well as burning the paint work. But cars are safe he said.

I was far too busy weeping and gibbering in terror to drive.

My old '84 LC diesel isn't a huge risk, electronically speaking, I'm happy to say. Three cheers for old(er) technology!

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Sat 06/08/2005 10:29

Some of my closest encounters with Lightning, are 29 November 2004 when a CG hit a paddock next to us within 100m of my car Aaron and I were in.

Another close encounter was 23 April 2005 while photographing hail in St Andrews when a CC went overhead and I felt the static from the strike, Quite a scary thing!!

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Sat 06/08/2005 11:20

03 Stormchaser wrote:Some of my closest encounters with Lightning, are 29 November 2004 when a CG hit a paddock next to us within 100m of my car Aaron and I were in.

What were you guys doing in a car out in the middle of a paddock? Wait, forget I asked...!

Another close encounter was 23 April 2005 while photographing hail in St Andrews when a CC went overhead and I felt the static from the strike, Quite a scary thing!!

Yes, quite.

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Sat 06/08/2005 12:20

there has been only one lightning fatality is NZ, a shepard mustering his sheep in Canterbury was killed on his horse.

Correction here, that death was in Taihape, December 1986.

What about those 2 guys about 2 or 3 years back on the Rootbourn track or possibly another track near Queenstown?

There are plenty of instances of lightning injuries. The most unusual I have heard of was 4 divers feeling the effects of a lightning strike while diving near the Coromandal.

Storm Struck · Unread post by **Storm Struck** » Sat 06/08/2005 13:14

Yes I had my close encounter last and it was to be told on the day I got my first lightning shot

.
November 25th 2004 storm Buster Roll cloud

.
I had got my share of lightning and wasnt getting much else so I turned to go uner shelter then a bolt hit about 15secs down the road from me I turned to see the blinding bolt

and the heat from it and my reaction was to hit the deck but my righ leg still happend to be in mid air so I got a shock

It sorta felt like static electricity from a car door a little zapp except when I got up my leg was numb for about 30 mins and my hair was frizzy

.
Iam guessing if you are within so many metres of lightning you get sorta like a magnetic electrical field yes or does that sound crazy

.
When you think about those hand orb globe things you put your hands on it has like a force around th outside of it that picks up you skin

.
Cheers
JASON.

Fujita Phil · Unread post by **Fujita Phil** » Sat 06/08/2005 23:36

Jasestrm wrote:Iam guessing if you are within so many metres of lightning you get sorta like a magnetic electrical field yes or does that sound crazy .
Cheers
JASON.

Hopefully I'm right with this...

Static Electricity in a way. In the short, short version... the storm above is charged with electrons (negative charge) and the ground below protons (positive charge). Opposites attract. The protons climb to the highest part to get as close to the electrons... eg. top of the Sky Tower, a tree in a field, or you. If the charge is very strong your hair will stand on end, reaching for the sky, and a fair old warning that a discharge is imminent.

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Sun 07/08/2005 10:38

Fujita Phil wrote:Hopefully I'm right with this...

Static Electricity in a way. In the short, short version... the storm above is charged with electrons (negative charge) and the ground below protons (positive charge). Opposites attract. The protons climb to the highest part to get as close to the electrons... eg. top of the Sky Tower, a tree in a field, or you. If the charge is very strong your hair will stand on end, reaching for the sky, and a fair old warning that a discharge is imminent.

Anybody know how much warning you'd get...would you have time to 'duck', or is it more along the lines of, "Hey, what the f-?" ZAAAAP!

tgsnoopy · Unread post by **tgsnoopy** » Sun 07/08/2005 11:23

None whatsoever, if it's going to get you, you are a goner!

Leaders get generated from various points near a CG Strike, one (and often more than one) of those leaders (of ionised gas) get's established up to a point where the voltage can break the remaining gap and then the first huge pulse of discharge current occurs. The second pulse is usually the highest current though!

Generally when you observe the symptoms of hair standing on end you are in fact part of a leader, and you have been at significant risk! Or so I was told on several occasions.

As a radio technician I've been called out to repair radio equipment on buildings and hilltops in electrical storms on numerous occasions. I have experienced it myself on more than one occasion and it always gets me back inside immediately.

My most challenging experience to date was in Aug 2000 at Bennydale, I was installing infill paging at the Fire Station and the rain static buidup on the Colinear aerial was that great, there was a regular ticking, as the spark jumped over the dielectric of the RG213 Coax (about 2.5mm). I had to fit the plug and connect it to the equipment whilst it did that (no risk to the equipment as it has a discharge path). People I rang and held the end of the coax up the microphone on the phone wouldn't beleive me. Oh for a video camera on that day!

About 2 minutes after I finished terminating and then connected the coax there was a huge CG strike outside, I suspect it was on the siren tower, but no-one was looking in that direction at the time and we don't know for sure.

Well, heavy rain it is for us today. Lets hope we don't get flooded again! I think we may have had a bit of activity this morning, but our neighbours were having a party when I went to bed and I had airplugs in, so I'm not sure what I heard when I woke up.

jeffsweather · Unread post by **jeffsweather** » Sun 07/08/2005 13:36

tgsnoopy wrote: My most challenging experience to date was in Aug 2000 at Bennydale, I was installing infill paging at the Fire Station and the rain static buidup on the Colinear aerial was that great, there was a regular ticking, as the spark jumped over the dielectric of the RG213 Coax (about 2.5mm). I had to fit the plug and connect it to the equipment whilst it did that (no risk to the equipment as it has a discharge path). People I rang and held the end of the coax up the microphone on the phone wouldn't beleive me. Oh for a video camera on that day!

About 2 minutes after I finished terminating and then connected the coax there was a huge CG strike outside, I suspect it was on the siren tower, but no-one was looking in that direction at the time and we don't know for sure.

I've seen the same thing when I worked in Otorohanga. Whenever the vertical whip aerial on the workshop was left open circuit, given the right conditions, it would tick....tick.....tick across the connector until there was a lightning discharge then would slowly build up again.
This was normally before a downpour. Assuming there was enough leakage when the whip was wet that the 1000's of volts leaked away.

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Sun 07/08/2005 14:38

All that free energy, wasted...

tgsnoopy · Unread post by **tgsnoopy** » Sun 07/08/2005 14:44

Can you imagine fitting the plug to the coax under those circumstances? The guy I was working with thought I was mad, and I suppose in a way I was. It certainly tickled (only low current if you were accross it continuously), but I wasn't counting on the CG strike! It was a close call.

I wouldn't do it again, I thought nothing of it at the time, but it was a pretty stupid thing to do in hindsight. It was about 4pm on a Friday afternoon from Memory (Tauranga is about two hours drive away).

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Sun 07/08/2005 15:22

I was reading somewhere(on the net) recently that open public places such as parks and school grounds in some parts of the US, such as Florida, are getting lightning detector/alarms installed. These detectors set off the alarm to warn people of the possibility of lightning strikes. I guess these detectors are picking up on that positive charge buildup.

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Sun 07/08/2005 17:05

found that link on lightning alarms

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/n ... 177328.htm

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