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When Lightning Strikes

ctwxman writes "For most of the United States (sorry West Coast), this is the season for lightning. It is as powerful as it is spectacular to look at. It is destructive too - by itelf or through the hail, straight line winds and tornadoes that often accompany it. As someone who forecasts the weather, I'm often asked about lightning. As you might imagine, there's plenty to see about lightning on the Internet. The conditions necessary and a little bit of the physics behind lightning are explained by Jeff Haby, a meteorologist (one of my professors actually) at Mississippi State University. Once forecasters get a handle on what's going on, they put the word out through the Storm Prediction Center. Regular outlooks are issued by SPC for severe storms. Once those storms rear their ugly heads, they're followed with mesoscale discussions looking at the active areas. The Storm Prediction Center is also the place where Severe Thunderstorm and Tornado Watches are issued and storm related damage reports are compiled. Lots of hobbyists like to track lightning strikes on their own, and there's equipment available to do just that. Getting hit by lightning is never fun, though not always fatal. National Geographic chronicled an amazing story of a lightning strike, and rescue, on Grand Teton."

11 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Why post this garbage, which is neither "news" nor anything that "matters" (i.e., worshipping Apple, Linus Turdvals, or bashing Micro$loth)

  2. suck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    suck suck!

  3. When lightning strikes Ha! by twoslice · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    and the Calgary Flames fans start another round of crying....

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    From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
  4. Free MP3s for download! by Robber+Baron · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    On JACK FM this morning they mentioned that tonight at 9pm (PST) FutureShop via this link will be allowing the first several (hundred?) thousand MP3 downloads for FREE. (thereafter they will charge $1 per MP3)

    yeah I'm probably going to burn karma for posting this, but what the hell...

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    You're using her as bait, Master!

  5. Re:Weather by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    you fucking cunt, i hope you drownd

  6. Re:NLDN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    White Jesus? Jesus was a Jew, wasn't He?

  7. Re:NLDN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    My pee smells like ramen.

  8. Re:NLDN by TastyWords · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    "Two wrongs don't make a right but three lefts do."

    -Gallagher

  9. Re:NLDN by Feztaa · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I know; my .sig is a parody of that.

  10. Sick violations of human rights by the US by t_allardyce · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Ah so when a severl centimeter thick bolt of lightning hits you you have a good chance of surviving (in pain). But when a couple thousend volts hits you in an electric chair you obviously get knocked unconcious instantly every time, which is of course why it needs to stay on for several minutes...

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    This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
  11. Re:just a few weeks ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    >> she dropped to her knees and said "that's the scariest thing I've ever seen."

    Heh, heh, heh.