REAL Weather

[poliphilo]

I remember sitting in a car on a Kentucky hillside (the tyres will earth the power if a bolt hits us, right?) watching the lightning strikes get nearer and nearer as the storm swept up the valley towards us.

I remember rain in Philadelphia. The air pretty much displaced by water. The force of it and the roar of it.

I remember a huge thunderhead sailing over the fields (in Kentucky again) all lit up from inside by frequent lightning- like a citadel at war- and how I waited till it was almost directly overhead before I ran for the house.

This is prompted by jackiejj writing about hurricane Frances. Heigh-ho; we don't get weather like that in Britain.

Comments

[cybersofa.livejournal.com]

My most amazing weather-related experience was being in a plane struck by lightning - Lufthansa, immediately after take-off, never the most comfortable moment of any flight. Normally they try and fly round storms, but this one must have been right at the end of the runway.

Boom! Flash! 200 men in suits thinking their last moment had arrived!

Next thing was the pilot on the intercom ... "Zose off you who haf ztudied Physics vill appreciate zat we are at zis moment inside a Faraday cage - ze charge must flow to ze outsite off ze aircraft ent kennot harm us ..."

Never before nor since have I been so grateful for a Physics lesson.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

So my wife was right about us being safe inside the car?

I now wish I'd paid more attention in Physics classes. Trouble is I just didn't understand what was going on- and I can't remember anyone taking the trouble to explain why it mattered.

[cybersofa.livejournal.com]

Yes, another Faraday cage (assuming not rag-roofed). I think you were safe, tyres or no tyres.