Living in southern California, I miss thunderstorms. We get maybe a few rumbles each year -- nothing like the storms we'd get when I was growing up back east. I've always been fascinated by lightning, and having watched many storms in the distance, I've seen odd things, like lightning that skims along the bottoms of clouds. And lightning that loops back into the clouds without hitting the ground. I've always wondered how rare these really are.
Looping lightning is not rare, but photos of it are. See this article for a nice example:
Source: USA Today "Looping lightning is rare, but not unknown" (31 Aug 01)
Lightning follows the path of least resistance (okay, impedence), and the air under a storm is naturally churned up. Still, it was a bit of a surprise to hear that cloud-to-cloud lightning happens "10 times as often as lightning that hits the ground."
Sometimes we tune out the common stuff. Most lightning stories we hear are of buildings and trees being struck and people killed. There's no human interest in stories about lightning that doesn't hit the ground. So, having never spoken much about it, it ends up seeming unlikely. seems like our perceptions of reality have looped without touching the ground.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Lightning loops
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As a California transplant fixated on getting back to my roots in the west, one of the things I have absolutely come to love are the afternoon thunderstorms. There's something inspiring and cathartic about a torrential downpour.
It's something I'll probably miss if/when I leave the south. Lightning still leads to me unplugging all the appliances and sends me scurrying for rubber soled shoes, however. I appreciate its beauty from afar but here it seems that lightning prefers to strike down the street rather than at the far edge of the horizon and is rudely ignorant of restraining orders.
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