Lightning / Storm Warning

Lady friend had lightning strike in tree in her yard, 50' or 100' away. She got a jolt of electricity up her leg, and [believe this or not] had the toe nail polish on one foot curl up. My understanding is that the extreme voltage lightning travels on surfaces, spreads out after striking, travels, and if you have two feet in contact with earth, it can travel up one leg, down the other, and go thru your center body mass. Your heart can stop.

Not a whole heck of a lot we can do about it, is there? That's one of those things where if you're time's up, it's up.

My farm is over top a copper field stray shots are not uncommon. I've had fuse boxes blow up by my face had a bucket blow out of my hand pouring milk into a cooler. One time it hit the barn knocked all the cows down and all the electrical tripped but the vacuum pump. One thing it likes to do is follow the mow light up blowing the shingles off. My dad was out plowing with my uncles and it came through the fence wire and knocked him out they pulled him out of the road and continued plowing when he came to he also went back plowing. Funny thing people wonder why I'm jumpy around storms. Lightning does funny things.

A few years ago about 10 miles from here lightning hit a tree then traveled a septic line to a nearby house. It blew the commode into 10,000 pieces[or so].The picture of the exploded commode made the front page of the local county paper the next week!

I think I would be putting up some lightning rods

My little home town (pop. 700-ish) has a yearly celebration that includes a parade, fireworks, carnival and a large beer garden. About 20 years ago, lightning hit the building that holds all the beer which was stored in a beer cooler. Every single can of beer had a hole in it, from the size of a pin hole to about the size of a pencil.

The insurance company made my dad put them on before they would renew his insurance. Thing is it travels one time it hit over a mile away and came in on the wires. The time dad got it he was next to a fence.

There are 3 towers around the farmstead where I grew up. One tower just across the road and two towers at opposite ends of the farmyard. Never worried about lighting with those towers there.

After a storm, we'd find dead birds on the ground that had roosted on the cables or tower, Their chests were always blown wide open from the current that went through them.

Just over a week ago lightning hit the transformer on the power pole in our yard. My son was in the barn just finishing up milking at the time . The power surge knocked two cows off their feet . The next day most of the cows were down in their milk ,now we have had ten cows come down with mastitis , and one cow went down for three days , finale got back on her feet today. Vet tells me that the sock hurts the cows nervous system.

Found this interesting.
Richard
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When I was putting up a steel shed, I talked to my insurance man about lightning rods. "Should I put them up, or keep them off?" was the question. He told me that the insurance premium would not be any cheaper with lightning rods. Several years ago, I saw a show on TV that used high-speed photography to actually show how a lightning bolt works. I'm sure there will be some argument here, but on this show they filmed lightning as it struck objects on the ground. The path of the lightning bolt actually goes from the cloud toward the ground, but when it gets to be about 100 feet off the ground, there are about 100-200 smaller lightning bolts that go from the ground up and actually meet the incoming bolt.
While the lightning rods MAY protect a few things (my insurance man said statistics really don't show it), lightning is so crazy that there is no guarantee of any kind.

My dad got nailed when he was just getting ready to unhook the electric gate to get out of a field. He only got what is called a tracer shot and it did knock his on his arss really good!

Myself and neighbor were standing in his garage with the door open when one hit nearby. It killed the fluorescent fixture above us we both saw a flash. It gave me a very weird sensation like I was charged with something. That was close enough for us.

When I was 8 or so a power company crew witnessed a fireball traveling down the power lines about 25 mph or so. They watched it as it traveled up to our house, (three of us in side) it encased the whole house in a blue flash, knocked us all down and fried [u:146d1da7c2]everything[/u:146d1da7c2] plugged in, from the furnace to alarm clocks.

Had lightning hit crazy close to the house one time. Scared the holy bageeberz out of us it was that close. Neighbor and I went outside to see what or where it hit. Didn't see any trees close by hit, we kinda assumed it was the center of the street. 2 Lg. Rhododendrons in my front flower bed against the house had the leaves folded up like they took a serious hit. Kinda thought it was the cast iron sewer pipe. Within an hour they looked as normal as could be. Never affected their health.

Its a good thing nobody was on the toilet then!

Heeheeheeheehee!

Scott

(quoted from post at 16:45:57 07/18/16) The power surge knocked two cows off their feet . The next day most of the cows were down in their milk ... Vet tells me that the sock hurts the cows nervous system.

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More common than is known is when equipotential does not exist. First appreciate how electricity works. Lightning is a plasma path that does nothing until that path is constructed. Then an electric current in microseconds (too fast for any high speed camera) connects a cloud three miles up to earthborne charges (via earth) maybe four miles distant. Four legged animals are at risk. Since a shorter path through earth can be up hind legs and down fore legs. Milk production can be adversely affected.

To appreciate this, find papers from (if I remember correctly) Dr Mary Ann Coopper from U of Illinois.

Equipotential means that current in on a path that need not pass underneath a cow or anywhere inside a barn. For example, a buried copper wire surrounding a barn means no current passes through ground beneath that barn. IOW equipotential exists as current takes a better conductive path around the barn. Then a voltage difference does not exist between cow legs.

Faults in AC electricity can also create these currents that hurt animals. Another reason for making a better earth ground so as to create equipotential.

Best time to avert this problem was when footing were poured for that barn using an Ufer ground.

A high speed camera cannot record what happens during those microseconds that a current flows.

Wires or pipes also must connect to that single point ground before entering. Otherwise equipotential is compromised.

Wow. That woulda made a great story back during Prohibition. Signs & wonders!

A few days ago in Bedford County a man was found by a state trooper on the side of the highway, unconscious and with bad burns. Rescue personnel were looking for signs of an auto accident but could find nothing. It was later determined he was walking down the road and was struck by lightning.

I was fishing in one of the bays adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico one afternoon when the usual summertime, afternoon, squall (brief, high intensity, thunder storm) came and went. The storm was maybe 5 miles distant....way off, didn't see it as an immediate threat. I saw a bolt of lightening and a few seconds later felt a tingling on the hand I had on my remote controls....engine lower unit in the water...metal, metal cables to the remote, metal remote. So yes, it does travel on the surface, at least some of it.

Was finishing up some hay one afternoon when a storm was approaching. Felt I was a few miles from the front of it trying to get finished before it hit. Sitting atop my haying tractor when all the hair on my head and arms stood straight up for a second. Ha. Took me all of a half second to shut that sucker off and "get outta Dodge".