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Thread: Why is there lightning before thunder?

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
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    New England
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Bender View Post
    The lightning is a warning to drop the cat before the clap of thunder.
    To paraphrase Rob Damon, look what you did. Rather impressive actually.

    As a cat person, I can relate.

    However , also loving all the science stories.

    But this thread was about having a cat in your arms when lightening struck nearby. Ouch.

    So to the science- I have experienced a direct hit (along with my wife and two single digit children) in the kitchen in a single story house so maybe ten feet above us. It hit the antenna and wiped out everything connected to it. EVERYTHING! My son lost his Nintendo and he was right in the middle of Zelda! Absolutely frightening for the moment that it happens. Climbing up on the roof the next day, there was no TV cable, only a white ash line on the shingles. Seriously impressive, and humbling.

    And LOUD!

  2. #17
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    Sep 2009
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    Putney, Vermont
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    When I moved in with my wife she would get in the hallway in the middle of the house during the spring,summer lightening storms we have every year.
    I asked her why and she said that she was in her bed asleep during a lightening storm and her iron bed was catapulted across the room with her in it when she was 18.
    The first year we moved into our house I was in the garage with the garage door open during a bad storm. I decided to stay in the garage and keep working. Big mistake. I never saw what got hit but there was lightening and electrally charged particles crackling and making noises all around the garage, just a foot off the ground, while I was in it. The hair on my head was standing up from it and I could feel the electricity. Being scared didn't begin to describe my feeling at the time.

  3. #18
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    Mar 2010
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    SE Michigan
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    Best personal example of sight vs. sound was watching the Apollo 14 launch. The sound was accompanied by heat pulses from the engines and shock waves on the palm trees.
    "Don't worry. They couldn't possibly hit us from that dist...."

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Lewiston, Idaho
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    I once saw the results of lightning striking the ground directly above a nitrogen charged cable run along side a runway at NAS Meridian, MS. The lighting ran into the the GCA radar (ground controlled approach) damaging the radar, melting electrical copper electrical connectors as big as my thumb and damaged the emergency generator that was supposed to automatically pickup the electrical load. We were several weeks getting that radar and generator back on line. The base has 3 runways. Luckily there was another radar on one of the other two runways that could be used.

    Lightning can be impressive and so can the resultant damage!
    Ken

    So much to learn, so little time.....

  5. #20
    Since we're telling lightning stories -

    I met my wife at a private club on a Saturday, it was Aug 3rd; she needed a break from her kids and ex so she got a babysitter and went to have a drink. My birthday was a few days earlier, and a friend living with me was the 'chef' at the club. He offered me a free dinner and some drinks and I had nothing better to do... She was sitting at the bar and spied me while I was throwing darts, asked a waitress about me, she introduced herself, we drank and danced a bit, exchanged phone numbers and went our separate ways. The next day I called only to get 'this number is out of service'. Oh well...

    The next Saturday I'd just got home from picking up my kids, and the weather was pretty foul. The phone rang. It was her! She asked why I didn't call? --Anyway, one of us made a mistake with her phone number. About 10 minutes into our chat, no warning,
    BOOM!!!
    HOLY CRAP!!

    I was standing in the doorway between the kitchen and dining area, looking into the kitchen. I turned around--The florescent dining room lights that were turned off, were now lit-- My entire stereo system that was off, every light was on, and BRIGHT- My son was hollering "WOW, it was like a laser light show in here!" -My daughter was scratching her arms, "my arms hurt dad!" , her arms were warm and red... a few seconds after the boom the florescents went dark, and the stereo lights dimmed down to their normal brightness. My pre-amp's time-delay circuit card ended up being blown, and the on/off switch never worked again, at least it was "on". Nothing else was affected. I never did find where the bolt actually hit. All while I'm on a cordless phone with an metal antenna--

    That was August 10th. On September 19th, we got married. This September we celebrate our 30th anniversary

    --That's one...
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  6. #21
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    Sep 2009
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    Medina Ohio
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    When I was a kid Lightning would strike our chimney about once a year one time I had just walked out the door when it hit I about had a heart attack. The chimney was a steel cylinder 4 ft diameter and 70 ft tall and had 4 steel cables to stabilize it.

  7. #22
    25 years ago I had a very small bolt hit a utility pole about 20 feet away from where I was standing. Between the bolt and the plasma balls on the wire, it looked like the most cheesy, low budget special effects you have ever seen. I would have laughed if I wasn't speechless and completely terrified.

  8. #23
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    Mar 2005
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    Wait...your cat waits for the thunder to react?!?

    Mine levitates about four feet straight up from the initial flash: the "boom" is just her signal to shift gears.
    Yoga class makes me feel like a total stud, mostly because I'm about as flexible as a 2x4.
    "Design"? Possibly. "Intelligent"? Sure doesn't look like it from this angle.
    We used to be hunter gatherers. Now we're shopper borrowers.
    The three most important words in the English language: "Front Towards Enemy".
    The world makes a lot more sense when you remember that Butthead was the smart one.
    You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much ammo.

  9. #24
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    Feb 2016
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rob Damon View Post
    It was a joke about a cat not a question of scientific inquiry............
    Sure, but I'm not a cat. I have a pretty odd sense of humor, and view just about everything as an excuse for a scientific or intellectual inquiry.

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