tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post4094707261513416921..comments2024-03-28T23:07:35.632-07:00Comments on Cliff Mass Weather Blog: Amazing Day of LightiningCliff Mass Weather Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13948649423540350788noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-70410735199500186442017-05-05T11:33:50.623-07:002017-05-05T11:33:50.623-07:00The risks of lightning are very remote, statistica...The risks of lightning are very remote, statistically, other than for ground currents, which can be scary. When I used to climb in CO, where daily T-storms are the norm, we often wound up on exposed ridges where our hair stood on end and the rocks under our feet vibrated. That was a bad sign, but not uncommon. But what we really sweated was the ground currents, not an air strike. <br /><br />A strike well above you or to either side would travel through the surface rocks. You could tell when that was happening when the flash and a very loud CLICK sound came simultaneously, and the thunder was a fraction of a second delayed. The click was from the ground current running through the rocks beneath your feet, banging them together. Very sobering. Sometimes we'd endure dozens of click-strikes in a matter of minutes. <br /><br />The safety rule was to never touch your hands to the ground (or anything conductive that touched the ground). If you wanted to reduce your profile, you did it by kneeling with arms crossed over your chest or up around your head. (Given you were usually in hail and extremely heavy rain at that point, it was natural to be holding something over your head.) <br /><br />You can handle a lot of ground current flowing from toes to knees without significant injury, or even being aware of it, but it doesn't take many milliamps through the heart to screw up the rhythm, possibly fatally. Touching your hand to the ground completes the wrong circuit through your body. Worst thing you could possibly do was to lay down. The key was that even if you were the highest thing around, the probability of an air strike was very, very remote. <br /><br />Of course, staying away from lone trees was good advice, but the worst advice was to duck under a rock overhang to get out of the hail. What happens when the ground current comes down the rocks from all the strikes just above you? Yeah, it air gaps from the rock overhang over your head to the ground below, using your body to complete the circuit. Same problem can occur around buildings by standing in the entranceway. Current travels on the skin of a structure and can air gap the entranceways.<br /><br />Far safer to stand out in the rain and hail and be awed by the lightning than to stand in a doorway. Better yet, get well inside the building and look out a window.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />John Marshallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08271037292493818827noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-21099733151314243262017-05-05T08:16:47.073-07:002017-05-05T08:16:47.073-07:00Pretty exciting day yesterday for these parts in S...Pretty exciting day yesterday for these parts in SE King County! Storm moved through around 3pm then again 5pm then another at 7pm, yet another at 9pm and to top it off another 1am to about 2am that kept us all up! Not sure I have seen that kind of prolonged activity around here EVER. And, yes I agree with Larchintech. Very surprised to see people acting like it was no big deal when cloud to ground lightening was hitting less than a mile away! You absolutely need to respect that kind of power. <br /><br /><br />Weatherfreakhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01448044230017714312noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-55104183563772860852017-05-05T07:43:16.704-07:002017-05-05T07:43:16.704-07:00Depressing. The clouds seemed to part as they appr...Depressing. The clouds seemed to part as they approached Portland. The "Portland Divergence zone"?Nerka2https://www.blogger.com/profile/17464746800348428442noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-32825240429631925392017-05-05T07:28:51.684-07:002017-05-05T07:28:51.684-07:00Those storms reminded me of the ones I grew up wit...Those storms reminded me of the ones I grew up with in the mid-west. I was surprised how many people were out walking around in it. I don't think they realize the power of a good thunderstorm since they really don't happen around here very often. larchitechhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02405453993339905510noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-44117209653922096912017-05-05T03:55:51.470-07:002017-05-05T03:55:51.470-07:00No doubt to be blamed on human-caused climate chan...No doubt to be blamed on human-caused climate change.Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11205752419540502278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-41411954581694977522017-05-05T02:12:23.549-07:002017-05-05T02:12:23.549-07:00At 2:10 am, there's yet another thunderstorm h...At 2:10 am, there's yet another thunderstorm hitting the Snoqualmie Valley. Probably the 5th round of storms, since the first one hit at 4:20 pm.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10214207272273323140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-51459128935841868382017-05-04T23:06:12.353-07:002017-05-04T23:06:12.353-07:00It was a great weather day. Fog into glorious sun ...It was a great weather day. Fog into glorious sun into awesome rainstorms. A little something for everyone. Bethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02349608611695155857noreply@blogger.com