
Extraordinary ‘megaflash’ lightning strikes cover several hundred kilometres - DyslexicAtheist
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/06/1067182
======
mikeInAlaska
The lot next to where I live has a cell tower which gets hit now and then. It
is ... way beyond.. loud. The last time it happened all my pets were in front
of me within 10 seconds after, as if saying "Pardon sir, we are not programmed
for this event! Please advise!".

The induced EMF in my long cables like cat-5 throughout the house and my
outdoor observatory also takes out motherboards, DSL interfaces and ethernet
adapters each time. These days when I hear thunder I start unplugging devices.

~~~
jameshart
Lightning seems particularly tough on high frequency signal processing
hardware. A lightning strike on an invisible dog fence the previous owners had
left in place around our house fried, along with a couple of ethernet ports,
every HDMI connector that was plugged in in one particular room at the time.
Rest of the devices continued to function perfectly, but those HDMI
input/outputs were cooked. Similar HDMI devices in another room were totally
unaffected. My working theory is that the devices in the affected room were
plugged in to multiple power sockets, giving a longer antenna loop through the
sensitive components, while in the unaffected room all the devices were
running off the same power strip. Would explain why ethernet - connecting
devices in different rooms - also seems vulnerable.

Not much more evidence to go on, so it's largely superstition, but as a result
I do generally try to keep my whole AV setup - game console, TV, AV receiver,
etc. - plugged into a single power strip now.

I also now have a cat who is _exceptionally_ nervous whenever he hears
thunder. My wife and son were home at the time and... yes, the sound of a
lightning strike at point blank is not just _loud_ , it's.. like a crack in
the world.

~~~
tootie
The 8-bit Guy had a video on this topic. He does a tour of his home wiring
setup and talks about his previous setup was completely destroyed by lightning
hitting a tree above a buried cable.

[https://youtu.be/Ev0PL892zSE?t=355](https://youtu.be/Ev0PL892zSE?t=355)

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CapitalistCartr
I live in the lightning capitol of North America. As an electrician, people
ask me how to protect their personal property against lightning. After the
usual spiel about lightning arrestors, and surge suppressors, I tell them
clearly, there is no real protection against lightning. It goes wherever,
unpredictably, and nothing can guarantee you or your possessions. The
equipment I've described can lower your risk; that's all _anything_ can do. I
should make a recording of that speech.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
Does a lightning rod high up and nearby work?

~~~
CapitalistCartr
Definitely. The Kennedy Space Center Assembly Building has an _excellent_
lightning rod system and it dissipates charge before a strike damages the
building. A pointed, metal, grounded stick is effective. But their system is
custom engineered and expensive. And, while it's worked well for them, still
no guarantees.

About KSC, my inside sales rep for Square D (the best switchgear) worked there
for awhile. They needed a contactor, holding up a Shuttle launch, and the
nearest one was at Square D HQ in Florence, KY, and could not be delivered
today, no way. The KSC rep tells him to hold on. About 30 minutes later, he
calls back, "Tell Florence to deliver it to the Guard base there. An F-15 will
be on the flight line waiting on it." They do have cool stuff. And the Shuttle
launch? It still got delayed.

~~~
dylan604
When your package absolutely positively has to be there, US Air Force.

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mathgenius
Amazing videos of lightning recorded at 28,500 fps:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQKhIK4pvYo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQKhIK4pvYo)

It really does look a bit like this technique for generating random fractal
tendrils:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion-
limited_aggregation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion-
limited_aggregation)

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LeoPanthera
I did have a quick hunt around YouTube but I couldn't find any video of the
March 2019 event. How disappointing, in the age of the security camera and
dashcam!

~~~
willvarfar
Someone local to me was struck by lightning recently, whilst they were filming
the storm on their phone from their porch. The phone screen is split, their
arm hurts etc, but the film was recoverable. The lightning was just
discernible as just a slight lightening on one frame, apparently. And a
simultaneous clap. They were fine, and apparently it was the second time they
were struck, although the first time was decades ago when they were caught out
cycling.

~~~
DyslexicAtheist
> They were fine, and apparently it was the second time they were struck

we usually don't notice how insulated we are from the dangers of the elements
in our modern lives. We even use "struck by lightening" in many "what are the
odds" type of comparisons. But risk/luck is all about positioning and exposing
yourself to it[1]. What are the chances of getting killed in a plane crash? A
lot higher if you're a pilot.

Last year I spent several months in the wilderness trekking the Alps. The
number of times I was scared shitless was much higher than normal. With every
bad weather I had to make a decision of whether to camp under trees (and get
killed by a falling branch) or by camping in a clear field (and get struck by
lightening). Lying there in my tent and thanking god (which I don't even
believe in) for my apparent luck. I pondered this a lot and thought about Roy
Sullivan[1] constantly (and airline employees too).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Sullivan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Sullivan)

~~~
dhosek
_> The lightning hit the top of his head, set his hair on fire, traveled down,
and burnt his chest and stomach. Sullivan turned to his car when something
unexpected occurred — a bear approached the pond and tried to steal trout from
his fishing line. Sullivan had the strength and courage to strike the bear
with a tree branch. He claimed that this was the twenty-second time he hit a
bear with a stick in his lifetime._

~~~
bergstromm466
_> The lightning first hit nearby trees and was deflected into the open window
of the truck. The strike knocked Sullivan unconscious and burned off his
eyebrows and eyelashes, and set his hair on fire. The uncontrolled truck kept
moving until it stopped near a cliff edge._

this is one lucky dude

~~~
dhosek
Except for the lightning. And I guess the bears.

------
elcritch
On a cursory glance it'd be interesting to know if this record mega-lightning
event could be related to the magnetosphere type event mentioned in another HN
story:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23658114](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23658114)

They're on different dates but perhaps recording shifts in E&M balances based
on global weather conditions, or perhaps affected by solar storms.

------
abeppu
Can anyone give a simple explanation of why a lightning strike would travel so
far laterally, rather than hitting the ground closer to wherever it started?

~~~
lostmyoldone
Good question! I'm not entirely sure, but if we consider that: 1) Air is a
decent insulator compared to earth 2) Most thunderstorms are quite close to
the ground 3) The electric potential is caused by colliding masses of air.

I would have to assume a large volume of air gets a bulk charge that is large
in a specific direction but not large enough for a strike to the ground. Then
you get a breakdown somewhere that connects a lower potential are to a higher
potential area, and because there is a bulk charge, the breakdown simply
continues after this initial connection.

After that, I don't really get how it can continue for 16 seconds, other than
massive amounts of charged in the atmosphere, and partially ionized leftover
air from the initial blast being conductive enough to trigger more insulation
breakdowns.

You can use electron beams to charge acrylic which you then trigger to
discharge by various means, and it seems to behave in a similar way but on a
much smaller scale. Iirc the small lightning bolts inside the acrylic
sometimes continue for a surprising amount of time, even though it's tiny, and
the flash also (generally) occur entirely within the insulator even it it's
quite long and thin.

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UncleOxidant
"Stay inside

The WMO reiterated the dangers of lightning, and the many lives it claims
every year.

Previous extreme examples have led to major loss of life: in 1975, for
example, 21 people in Zimbabwe were killed when a single flash hit the hut in
which they were sheltering"

So it didn't really help them to stay inside.

~~~
airstrike
I guess the difference is whether you're staying inside a hut or a modern
building with a grounding system

~~~
sebazzz
That brick and stone house I'm in does not have any grounding as far as I
know. However, I think the wet trees next to it will probably be a better
conductor.

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codezero
I wonder if these are at all related to the "sprite" phenomenon which is
observed from space.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(lightning)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_\(lightning\))

~~~
netman21
Well, proponents of the electric universe theory have an interesting
explanation. First of all: lighting is not caused by clouds rubbing together.
It is a result of the protective capacitance layer in the upper atmosphere
leaking. Sprites are discharges from surrounding space across the ionosphere
which trickles further down CAUSING thunderstorms and electric discharge to
ground, or lightening.

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beambot
That sounds awesome. Do we know of any photos or videos of this event?

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at_a_remove
I have always wanted to get ahold of a struck lightning rod (apparently they
must be replaced after a strike) which exhibits the z-pinch.

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frabbit
Spelling suggestion for the title: s/lightening/lightning/

~~~
dang
Fixed now. Thanks!

