Will and Guy's
Collection of Lightning Bolt Pictures
There are various types of cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, on this
page we feature the classic bolt. On other pages we have pictures of
fork, bead and ribbon lightning.
Here are two follow-up pictures showing the damage to the mast caused by the lightning bolt.
If a band plays music in a thunderstorm, who is most likely to get hit by
lightning? The conductor.
Thick Lightning Bolts
Photographer Mitchell Krog says: "In nearly six years of storm
photography this single image portrays, more than any other image I've
taken, the sheer chaos and power of a lightning storm."
Lightning is a gigantic electrical spark that results from billions of volts of static electricity. Each lightning
bolt carries a current of 10,000 Amps at 100 million Volts.
The chances of being struck by lightning are about one in three million
according to the Meteorological Office, UK, higher than your chances of
winning the jackpot in the Lotto, which is one in 14 million!
Will and Guy discovered that Mike Bellhouse, from Leeds, reported that
one of his wife's colleagues was struck by lightning whilst walking in a
park and was fortunate to only walk away a little tingly and shaken.
Apparently less than three weeks later he won over £1 million on the Lotto.
Apparently 85% of people killed by lightning are male.
Another weird story happened to a Bulgarian woman, Martha Maiko. In 1935,
an American tourist, Randolph Eastman, during a thunderstorm asked to stay
in her house until the storm ended. A week later they were married, but
months later the man was killed by lightning.
Later Maiko remarried, this time to a Frenchman named Charles Mort.
During their trip to Spain her second husband also was struck by lightning.
The widow returned to Sofia and started therapy to recover from depression.
Time passed and she married the doctor from whom she was receiving the
treatment. They were married in Berlin, but during a trip to France a
lightning bolt hit the car they were driving. The third husband was killed
on the spot.
As far as we are able to ascertain she was not married for a fourth time.
Spectacular Lightning Strike
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Golfers Often Witness Lightning Bolts
Karin Vickery reported to the BBC of her experience while playing golf in
the year 2000 with a friend.
'We had just teed off the 12th hole when the biggest storm I have ever
witnessed began. We decided to carry on with our game as we were both at a
crucial stage. The clouds became blacker and heavier as the moments wore on.
I was walking down to the 13th hole when an enormous piece of fork lightning
exploded from the sky. The next thing I remember is waking up in Wrexham
Maelor Hospital, north Wales, with 70% burns.'
Karin underwent several operations and said that her life has now resumed
a state of normality thanks to the hospital and her friend. 'But I will
never forget that fateful day at the 13th hole.'
See further stories about unlucky 13.
Will and Guy thank the BBC for help with this article.
You can see the volcano at the bottom, note the ash plume during the
eruption of this volcano in Chile. Incidentally, this pictures
also features cloud-to-cloud lightning.
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Animals Struck by Lightning Bolts
On 19th August 2004 a lightning strike killed 31 cows sheltering under a
tree in Jutland in rural southwest Denmark seemingly setting a gruesome
world record.
'When I went out to the barn to milk the remaining cows the tears came,'
said farmer, Kurt Nielsen. 'It is a really terrible thing.'
The Danish insurers association said it was the largest number of
reported deaths of farm animals from a single bolt of lightning.
The Insurers obviously had not known about the sheep in the USA. On
September 1st, 1939, lightning hit and killed 835 sheep that had been bedded
down for the night on the top of Pine Canyon in the Raft River Mountains of
Box Elder County in northwest Utah.
Rain from a passing thunderstorm wet the ground and sheep, causing the
lightning's electrical discharge to move completely through the herd of
female sheep and lambs. The next morning, fifteen sheep [out of 850] were
found alive but in a dazed condition.
The sheepherder was knocked temporarily unconscious, but escaped death
because he was in a tent. However, burned spots on his canvas tent revealed
that he probably missed the fate of the sheep by only the smallest of
margins.
A Chinese man called Mr Xu, swore to God that he didn't owe about $100
to his neighbour Mr Huang. In the time it has taken you to read this a
lightning bolt struck down Mr Xu. Mr Huang remembered the debt well,
Xu borrowed the money for a friend's marriage gift.
In desperation Mr Huang said that if Xu dared to swear to god that he did
not owe the money, then he would waive the dept. Xu foolishly took up the
challenge, and made the oath in front of a crowd of neighbours in Fuqing
city, China. Less than a minute after Xu made his oath, he was struck
down by lightning.
Xu was quickly taken to hospital where doctors confirmed he had indeed
been injured by lightning. While he is expected to make a full
recovery, it is hoped that Xu will settle his debt honourably.
A flash of lightning illuminates the sky over the 2,500-year-old Ancient
Parthenon temple, at the Acropolis hill during heavy rainfall in Athens,
Greece.
Lightning Bolts
Footnote: Please send Will and Guy your best pictures of lightning bolts.
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