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Display Incident Data
Displaying 1 to 50 of 2605 Records
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| 05/12/2008 12:00 PM Injured |
3 people |
0.0 |
U |
Pendang Lake Resort
Maylasia |
|
|
|
|
| Three faint after lightning strike nearby
ALOR STAR: Three trainee teachers who were taking part in a marching exercise during a heavy rain fainted when lightning struck near their training site at Pendang Lake Resort here.
The incident occurred at 9.30am yesterday when the trainees were marching with about 30 others du-ring a cadet training programme.
An eyewitness, who declined to be named, said the group was marching to a hall when the lightning struck about 80m away.
“I saw three of them fell and I rushed to their aid. They fainted but did not sustain any injuries.”
The instructor alerted the Pendang Health Clinic and the three were ta-ken to the clinic before being refer-red to the Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital.
The eyewitness said two other trainees who complained of numbness in their arms minutes after the incident were also sent to the hospital for treatment.
It is learnt that the trainees recei-ved outpatient treatment and were released later in the evening.
The five-day programme for trai-nees from the Teacher Training Col-leges from Penang, Perak and Kedah was scheduled to end yesterday |
| 05/12/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
5 killed 4 critical |
10.0 |
U |
Sundergarh Orissa
Thailand |
|
|
|
|
| Bhubaneswar, May 12 (IANS) At least five children were killed and four critically injured Monday afternoon in lightning strikes in a village of Orissa’s Sundergarh district, the police said. The lightning struck them when the children, all between 10 and 13, were playing on a road at Taputikra village, some 140 km from the steel city of Rourkela, a senior police official Narasimha Bhol told IANS. |
| 05/10/2008 05:35 PM Injured |
Felicity Wishkeno |
15.0 |
F |
Topeka Ks
USA |
|
in the shower |
|
Indirect,Indoors,Shower |
| Lightning stirke injures teen in shower
By Steve Fry
The Capital-Journal
Published Sunday, May 11, 2008
A teenager was injured Saturday when a bolt of lightning traveled into a house on N.W. Valencia Road and shocked her as she showered, public safety officials said.
Felicity Wishkeno, 15, didn't suffer any burns but did show all the "signs and symptoms of a lightning strike," said Assistant Fire Chief Nathan Rewerts, of Shawnee County Fire District No. 4.
Wishkeno had numbness in her arms and legs, generalized pain, and was disoriented, Rewerts said.
She was transported by American Medical Response ambulance in need of emergency care to St. Francis Health Center, Rewerts said.
The incident occurred at 1536 N.W. Valencia Road, sheriff's Cpl. Michael Wright said.
The lightning hit a one-story frame house at 5:35 p.m. just north of railroad tracks and about one-fourth of a mile south of the Kansas River, Rewerts said.
Rewerts said a lightning bolt from a storm struck the ground near the house and somehow traveled into the structure, which had steel plumbing, and the bolt perhaps traveled through the shower nozzle.
The house didn't bear any signs of a direct lightning strike, Rewerts said.
"She's a lucky girl," Rewerts said.
Rewerts said the incident reminded him of the television show "Myth Busters," which tests whether urban legends can occur.
Can lightning injure someone who is showering?
"The answer is yes," Rewerts said.
|
| 05/08/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
11 killed |
0.0 |
U |
Malda
India |
|
different places |
|
|
| Bolt from sky kills 11, rain brings relief
OUR BUREAU
Dark clouds gather over Malda and (below) a rain-drenched street in Jalpaiguri. Pictures by Surajit Roy and Biplab Basak
May 8: Eleven people were struck by lightning and killed when a Nor’wester raged through the region this afternoon, with rain, storm and hail lashing all the six north Bengal districts. While 10, including a CPM candidate for panchayat polls, were from Malda, one was from Siliguri.
Taking a break from a hectic campaigning schedule, Habibur Rehman (42), a candidate for the Bhado gram panchayat, was having tea at a roadside stall, when the bolt from the sky struck and he died on the spot.
Lightning also killed Jagannath Mandal (55) at Kalichak, where roofs of 70 homes were blown off, and Prasenjit Saha (17) at a railway loco shed in Englishbazar, where five others were injured.
Four persons from two families were killed and six injured at Tiklichar of Mahanandatola Bilaimari gram panchayat. The dead have been identified as Abul Qasim (50), his son Kustar Sheikh and Akhtara Bibi (35) and her brother-in-law Md Gena.
Afzal Hussain (24), Md Nasiruddin (41) and Habib Baser (35) were killed while they were at a village haat (market place) at Samsi.
“So far, we have got reports of 10 deaths by lightning,” district magistrate Chittaranjan Das said. “The block-development officers have been instructed to assess the damage and submit a report,” he added. In Siliguri, Nilima Roy (20) of Sipahipara was killed on the verandah of her house.
T. Ckakraborty, the director of Jalpaiguri Regional Meteorological Office, said lightning, accompanied by rain and storm, was caused by a huge column of cumulonimbus cloud. “A column of cloud rising as high as 16km was observed over some parts of north Bengal, including Malda,” he said.
The Met-official said the thunder squall was a product of a number of factors, including two low-pressure troughs, a cyclonic circulation over north Bengal and Jharkhand, upper-air trough and moisture from the Bay of Bengal.
The total rainfall recorded at Jalpaiguri regional office for the day was 14mm while and maximum temperature was 31.9 and minimum 23.6 degrees Celsius.
Hailstorm in Buniadpur and surrounding areas in Balurghat wreaked havoc on standing boro crop. “My ten bighas of ripened paddy has been damaged,” said Bidhan Das of Shibpur.
Mango growers in Malda reported extensive damage. District mango officer Samarendranath Khanra said today’s storm is likely to bring down mango production by 10 per cent.
“As it is, the growth of the fruit was suffering because there was no rainfall last month,” Subodh Mishra, the president of Malda Mango Merchants’ Association, said. “Now the storm has brought down all the green mangoes. A good rain would have been most beneficial, but the storm has dashed all our hopes.”
|
| 05/08/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
policeman killed 1 injured |
28.0 |
M |
Kerala
Thailand |
|
|
|
Police Officer |
| Kozhikode, May 9 (IANS) A police constable on duty at a wireless station at Koorachundu, some 60 km from here, was killed and another policeman was injured in lightning Thursday midnight. The diseased was identified as Nishand, 28. Rajesh, 25, who was injured, was admitted to a hospital near here.
“The wireless station is atop a steep hill and in a remote area. There was heavy rain yesterday. The antennas at the station may have made the centre susceptible to lightning strikes,” an official told IANS.
|
| 05/02/2008 12:00 PM Injured |
2+ players |
0.0 |
M |
Vinh Long Stadium
South Vietnam |
|
in a soccer match in a stadium ? |
N/A |
Field,Outside,Soccer,Sports Field,Stadium |
| Lightning injures two footballers in south Vietnam
Footballers and a referee are knocked down and others panic just after lighting struck Vinh Long Stadium Friday, critically injuring two players A lightning bolt stuck the Vinh Long Stadium football pitch during a game Friday, seriously injuring two players and panicking dozens of others.
Match supervisor Pham Van Hai said the lightning struck around the game’s 12th minute.
Kien Giang’s Tran Thanh Truong and Vinh Long’s Pham Du Thien Chuong passed out on the spot.
They were rushed to Vinh Long General Hospital for emergency care.
Referee Truong Quang Tuan went temporarily deaf and couldn’t move his legs.
A source from the hospital later said Truong was in more critical condition than Chuong.
Truong’s arms and legs were paralyzed and had to be administered oxygen.
He began to recover after half an hour of intensive care.
He was still in intensive care Saturday.
The two teams resumed the match Saturday morning, with Kien Giang shutting out the home squad 2-0.
Footballer struck by lightning ‘recovering’
(09-05-2008)
HA NOI — Footballer Tran Thanh Truong, who was rushed to hospital after being struck by lightning during a Second Division game on May 2, is no longer in critical condition, doctors said last Saturday.
Truong, who plays for Second Division Nguyen Hoang Kien Giang, was left blind and paralysed after a lightning bolt struck the Vinh Long Stadium pitch 12 minutes into a game against Vinh Long.
Vinh Long’s Pham Thien Chuong was also hospitalised, while many other players were left in shock.
Truong and Chuong were rushed unconscious to hospital in Vinh Long Province. Chuong was later released after making a full recovery, but Truong remained in a critical condition for days, unable to move his arms and legs or breathe unassisted.
According to Dr Ho Bich Thuy, Truong is still unconscious but able to move his limbs. He also opened his eyes for the first time on Wednesday and his blood pressure is normal, Thuy said, adding that she expected the footballer to make a full recovery.
The football match was resumed the next day, and Kien Giang went on to win 2-0.
Footballer deaths are not unheard of in Viet Nam. Last year, a Cameroon footballer suffered a stroke and later died while training with First Division Military Zone 4 Sara Group in Vinh City in central Nghe An Province.
In 2005, Military Zone 4’s assistant coach, Tran Nam Trung, died after suffering a stroke during a team training session. — VNS
|
| 04/30/2008 10:20 PM Killed |
Anggau Michael |
0.0 |
M |
Jalan Kebajikan
Malaysia |
time is pm |
found in a ditch |
|
Outside |
| DAILY EXPRESS NEWS
Man killed by lightning found in drain
Kota Kinabalu: The body of a local man who was struck by lightning was found in a drain at Jalan Kebajikan, about 200ft from the SM St Francis Convent here, Wednesday.
The body of the man, identified as Anggau Michael, from Kg Nawanan, Ranau, was found by a grass cutter, Isahar Epaya, at about 10.20am. He said he had started working, cutting grass on the roadside with four friends in the area, about two hours prior to finding the body, which was shirtless.
Isahar said he saw something in the drain and was shocked to find the body, which seemed to have burn marks on it, and immediately called the police.
Policemen including City Crime Officer, DSP Ahmad Asri Jamaluddin arrived soon after. Forensics unit from the police and Queen Elizabeth Hospital also came later. City Police Chief, ACP Ahmad Sofi Zakaria confirmed later that the man died after being struck by lightning.
|
| 04/29/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
Joey Tamwoy |
35.0 |
M |
Darnley Island Queensland
Australia |
|
on a crayfish expedition |
|
Boat,fishing,Near Water,On Water,Outside |
| By Neil Hickey
May 01, 2008 11:09am
A MAN struck by lightning in far north Queensland has died after he was unable to be treated in a hospital - which sits unmanned despite being built almost six months ago.
The man, Joey Tamwoy, believed to be in his mid 30s, was on a crayfish expedition with a friend in waters off Darnley Island in the Torres Strait when he was struck by lightning about 3pm on Tuesday.
Mr Tamwoy, a well known local man who worked as a garbage collector for the Torres Strait Island Regional Council, was alive when the small tinnie he was aboard returned to shore.
However he died a short time later.
It could not be confirmed whether he died before or after he was admitted to the island’s existing medical centre.
Medical staff operate out of the condemned building, which locals say is rat infested and occasionally without running water, despite the completion last year of a $5.4 million hospital, just 200m away.
But the new hospital is a virtual ghost facility despite being operational since December last year.
A temporary generator was installed before Christmas that can power the entire hospital, except the morgue and doctor’s quarters.
Despite that, Queensland Health has refused to commission the hospital until full scale power is provided to the remaining areas.
A Torres Strait Islander, speaking on the condition he remain anonymous, said he and others on the island believed Mr Tomwoy’s life could have been saved had the new hospital been staffed.
``They have stuffed us around for so long,’’ he said.
``They finished it last year and it’s just been sitting there doing nothing.
``Maybe it could have saved him. He had a pulse when he came to shore.
``Lots of people survive a lightning strike.’’
The man said Mr Tamwoy, while ``no angel’’, was a ``decent bloke’’ who was much admired on volcanic Darnley Island, a tiny indigenous community of about 350 people, most of whom are in shock at his death.
``He didn’t have to go out like that,’’ he said.
``He was a good guy.
``No one can believe it. We’re all just very sad and shocked.’’
The island has been without a registered nurse since late March when the island’s only nurse left amid concerns at the decrepit old medical centre.
Beth Mohle, the assistant secretary with the Queensland Nurses Union, said the nurse was keen to return to the island when the new hospital opens.
``Our member has always been keen to get back to work on Darnley as soon as is practical but unfortunately the nurse’s old facility is condemned and the new facility hasn’t even been commissioned yet,’’ she said.
Health Minister Stephen Robertson told state parliament yesterday the ``power supply issues (at the facility) should be resolved this week’’.
Ms Mohle said the hospital was probably closer to opening sometime in late May, a claim backed by Queensland Health’s northern area general manager Roxanne Ramsey.
Ergon Energy could not comment on the when the hospital would be fully operational.
Electrical infrastructure has already been delivered to the island but a native title and cultural heritage assessment of the area needs to be undertaken before construction work starts.
``It’s a top priority project and we’ll finalise it as soon as all other party’s needs are satisfied,’’ Mr Bowes said.
Mr Tamwoy’s body was yesterday flown to Thursday Island for an autopsy.
The scandal is yet another for Queensland Health in the Torres Strait.
In May this year a nurse was raped while sleeping in her quarters on Mabauig Island.
The alleged attack occurred despite forewarnings about safety from the nurse herself, 27, and others, in remote Queensland communities. |
| 04/28/2008 12:00 PM Injured |
1 of 2 married couple |
0.0 |
M |
Sussex Va
USA |
|
inside an 8x10 foot shed |
|
Indoors |
| hurt in Sussex, homes flattened in Brunswick
BY PATRICK KANE
STAFF WRITER
04/29/2008
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SUSSEX — A storm system that damaged cars and businesses near Southpark Mall caused havoc elsewhere in the area. A couple was injured by a lightning strike in Sussex County, while homes were reportedly damaged in Brunswick County.
“We had a lightning strike, and we had injuries from that lightning strike,” said Capt. Kevin Diggs of the Sussex County Sheriff’s Office. A man was hurt on the right arm and hand, while a woman sustained injury to her face, he said.
“She was complaining that she couldn’t see, and appeared to be in shock,” Diggs said, adding that a TV appears to have exploded.
The married couple had been in an 8-by-10 foot shed, which was a total loss after it caught fire. They were transported to Southside Regional Medical Center in Petersburg, Diggs said. Deputies were looking into a possible tornado sighting, he said.
In Brunswick County, several homes were damaged by a possible tornado. Ted Jonas, coordinator of emergency services for the Southside Area Chapter of the American Red Cross, said that homes and a trailer park were damaged in Brunswick.
Elsewhere in the Tri-Cities, police and fire officials reported little or no damage. Many in the region sent resources to help Colonial Heights, including hazardous materials teams from Hopewell and Petersburg, and mobile command centers from Chesterfield and Petersburg.
A tree fell on a house in Hopewell, said Fire Fighter Robin Yoast of the Hopewell Bureau of Fire. The home on Bexley Street was damaged, but none of the occupants were injured. T.C. Hairston, chief of the Petersburg Bureau of Fire, said the city saw flash-flooding but no significant storm damage. A fire on Hollyhill Drive about the same time the tornado hit was unrelated, he said.
No serious damage was reported in Dinwiddie, Chesterfield or Prince George counties.
“We had downed trees but that may have been from the wet ground,” said Dinwiddie Fire Marshal Tony Williams. “We’ve been pretty lucky in the county.”
Some school children in Prince George and Hopewell were sheltered in place until the storm was clear. Elementary students were held until 4:45 p.m., said Dr. R. Francis Moore, superintendent of Prince George Schools. Hopewell students in some after school activities were held until 4:30 p.m.
“The watch switched to a warning so we held them after that,” said Winston O. Odom, superintendent of Hopewell Public Schools.
Bob Kirby, superintendent of Petersburg National Battlefield Park, said no damage was noted immediately by rangers. The battlefield is not far from where the tornado struck.
“We’re trying to figure it out. Right now, I don’t see anything,” Kirby said.
Colonial Heights City Manager Richard A. Anzolut said the football stadium’s field house was damaged by the storm. That is about a mile away from the Southpark Mall area that took the brunt of the damage.
Roads around Southpark Mall and Interstate 95 were snarled, but only one accident was reported. A two-vehicle crash occurred without serious injuries, said Sgt. Tom Cunningham of Virginia State Police.
“We got reports of debris, such as a partial rooftop that was on the interstate at the 53 mile marker. It got very congested through here as emergency crews responded,” he said.
Fortunately, no injuries in the Tri-Cities were serious enough to require airlift. PHI Air Medical, based at John Randolph Medical Center, said their helicopter was grounded due to poor weather conditions. Virginia Commonwealth University Life Evac, based at Dinwiddie County Airport, said they check on weather conditions as calls for service come in.
• Staff writer Markus Schmidt contributed to this article.
• Patrick Kane may be reached at 722-5155 or pkane@progress-index.com.
|
| 04/28/2008 12:00 PM Injured |
2of 2 married couple |
0.0 |
F |
Sussex Va
USA |
|
inside an 8x10 foot shed |
|
Indoors |
| In Sussex County, a couple were severely injured when lightning hit a shed that they were in, according to Capt. Kevin Diggs of the sheriff’s office. The shed became engulfed in flames, Diggs said.
|
| 04/26/2008 12:00 PM Injured |
John Christino |
54.0 |
M |
Gates NY
USA |
|
standing outside of store |
|
During the storm,Outside |
| A Gates man was treated at Unity Hospital after being struck by lightning this afternoon. 54 year old John Christino was standing outside of his business, J & D's Biker Leather and Accessories store in Gates when he was struck by lightning during the storm. His wife found him behind the store. The extent of his injuries is not known at this time. |
| 04/23/2008 12:00 PM unknown |
Thor Guard |
0.0 |
U |
Spartanburg county Tn
USA |
|
lightning predictor system |
|
Education,Legal |
| tudent Death Prompts Schools To Install Lightning Predictors
Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008 - 04:09 PM Updated: 06:41 PM
Photo Video
Oakbrook shared their research about the Thorguard Integrated Lightning Prediction and Warning System with other area schools just two weeks ago. Dorman High School in Spartanburg District 6 installed one too.
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By Connie LeGrand
E-mail | Biography
For the past thirty years, lightning has been to blame for killing an average of 62 people a year, according to the National Weather Service. In 2007, one of those deaths involved a student in the Upstate. Since then two schools in Spartanburg County have installed state-of-the-art lightning predictor systems.
Just over a month ago, Oakbrook Preparatory invested in the system which can give up to 20 minutes advance warning of a lightning strike. Last August, 17- year old Alex Holbein, a student at Oakbrook, was struck and killed by lightning while at soccer practice. Oakbrook Headmaster Steve Smith shared his research about the Thorguard “Integrated Lightning Prediction and Warning System” with other area schools and just two weeks ago, Dorman High School in Spartanburg District 6 installed one too. "We can't control the forces of nature…but what we can do is try to give them the best safety features that are possible." Dorman Head Football coach David Gutshall says the toughest decision he makes during practice on a rainy days is when to get 180 athletes off the field. He says taking some of the human element out of the decision-making will help give him peace of mind. "And I think it's going to make parents feel better, because they will know we are doing everything we can to protect the young men and women at Dorman High School," says Gutshall.
The systems can also be programmed to detect tornados and be used as an emergency notification system for an event like a gunman on campus. Thorguard tells News Channel 7 the systems cost between $10,000 - $15,000.
Oakbrook Preparatory Website: http://www.oakbrookprep.org/
Dorman High School Website: http://www.dormanhigh.org/
Spartanburg District 6 Website: http://www.spartanburg6.k12.sc.us/index.php
National Weather Service Lightning Safety: http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/
Thorguard Lightning Prediction and Warning Systems: http://www.thorguard.com/ |
| 04/23/2008 12:00 PM Injured |
Brandon Spatz |
9.0 |
M |
McCook Ne
USA |
|
going out to get a toy |
|
During the storm,Outside,Yard |
| Boy survives lightning strike
Friday, April 25, 2008
Lorri Sughroue
Brandon Spatz, right, with his older brother Teagan, stand next to the yard light that bounced a bolt of lightning onto Brandon. Brandon holds the box that he ran out to save during Wednesday's thunderstorm.
(Lorri Sughroue/McCook Daily Gazette)
[Click to enlarge]
A 9-year old McCook boy who was struck by lightning in Wednesday's thunderstorm has a sore shoulder to remind him.
Brandon Spatz, the son of Steve and Mindy Spatz, said he ran outside during the brief thunderstorm Wednesday to retrieve a cardboard box that he was afraid would blow away. Brandon said he wanted to save the box to play with it later.
The box was near an old yard light that is no longer working and when he picked the box up, Brandon said lightning struck the light pole and bounced onto a metal button on his coat.
When the lightning struck, older brother Teagan, who was inside watching television, said he saw a bright yellow light like an electrical box explosion and thought, "Oh crap, Brandon's outside."
Moments later, Brandon came inside crying and complained of his shoulder hurting, his body tingling and a metal taste in his mouth.
Mindy Spatz was in her car coming back from delivering food and a gift to a family with a recently deceased relative and called the house to see if everyone was OK.
"Are all the kids inside?" she asked, including her other, 5-year-old son.
"Teagan told me everybody was fine but that Brandon was struck by lightning," she recalled. "And I said, 'What!?!'"
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Mindy drove home quickly and took Brandon to the emergency room at Community Hospital.
He had a red mark on his shoulder but no exit wounds. He underwent an EKG and blood work, she said, and then was dismissed. The red mark was gone in an hour and half, she said.
"He told the doctor, 'I'm Survivor Boy!'" she said. "And at school today, he was the science project."
Brandon said his third grade class is studying -- what else? -- thunderstorms.
The odds of getting struck by lightning is about 1 in 700,000, according the National Weather Service. |
| 04/22/2008 10:20 PM Injured |
Jeremy Grinde 1 of 3 |
0.0 |
M |
Minneapolis Mn
USA |
|
in vehicle on taxiway |
N/A |
Airplane,Construction site,In a car |
| Three struck by lightning at airport
No serious injures were reported among the construction workers.
Last update: April 22, 2008 - 6:29 AM
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More from West Metro
Part 3: Suburbs stuck with empty houses are trying to figure out what to do now
'Most Wanted' show leads to arrest of Golden Valley man
Former hockey player admits aiding bank robber
Part 2: Housing bets gone bad
Part 1: Minnesota's new ghost towns
Three construction workers struck by lightning late Monday at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport suffered non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.
The three construction workers, whose names were not immediately available, were hurt at 10:20 p.m. when lightning struck the vehicle they were in on a taxiway near the E concourse north of the Lindbergh terminal, said Patrick Hogan, director of public affairs for the airport. One of the workers was directly struck.
All three were alert when rescue workers arrived, Hogan said. Two refused medical treatment, but the third was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center with minor injuries.
Contrary to belief, rubber tires and rubber shoe soles do not provide protection from lightning, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency website.
The strike was at least the second during Monday night's thunderstorm, which came at the beginning of National Severe Weather Awareness Week. A Maple Grove house caught fire when lightning struck a gas main shortly before 10 p.m. No one was hurt in the fire.
ABBY SIMONS
|
| 04/22/2008 10:20 PM Injured |
Boyd Heilig 3 of 3 |
0.0 |
M |
Minneapolis Mn
USA |
|
|
N/A |
Airplane |
| see 1 of 3 |
| 04/22/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
4 people |
0.0 |
U |
Nyakatfo
Swazi |
|
separate incidents |
|
Field,Outside,Sports Field |
| Lightning kills four
Stories by Sisho Magagula
THE violent storm that swept across the country on Sunday afternoon struck at a football field at Nyakatfo in the Hhohho region and instantly killed a player and a fan, and injured two others.
Two other people were also struck dead in separate incidents. Sunday's tragedy has left the small community of Nyakatfo shell-shocked, and speculations of supernatural powers are spreading like wild fire.
The incident happened during a game pitting two local teams, Bashokobezi FC and Young Stars FC on Sunday afternoon at the stadium not very far from Nyakatfo Primary School.
Bheki Ndwandwe (21), a goalkeeper for Bashokobezi, was struck by lightning just after the referee blew the whistle stopping the game because of the imminent violent storm.
An eye-witness, Fana Masango, said the game was 18 minutes from stoppage time when the referee decided to call it off due to the storm.
“All the players came out of the field of play, and when Bheki was about to reach the touch line, there was a loud thunder, and a terrifying bolt of lightning. Within a twinkle of an eye, Bheki was down, and when we rushed to check him out, he was stone cold - dead,” said Masango.
Meanwhile, outside the field, a fan, Dololo Dlamini (18), was also struck dead in that same round of thunder and lightning, which had also killed Ndwandwe.
Said Masango: “Just when we were busy inspecting Bheki, someone screamed from outside the field and informed us that Dololo had also been struck by the lightning. Players and other fans attended him and discovered that he was dead.”
Masango further added that two other fans were also seen writhing in pain on the ground and it was discovered that they had been injured.
Two vehicles were quickly organised to take all four to the Mkhuzweni Health Centre.
“The doctor told us that Bheki and Dololo were long dead and should be taken to the mortuary. The other two fans were admitted, treated and discharged this morning,” said Masango.
One of the survivors is Sibusiso Pitane Magagula, whilst the other’s identity could not be immediately ascertained.
In an interview, Bheki Ndwandwe’s (deceased) grandmother, Mhlahlose Nxumalo, expressed shock at the incident.
“Bheki told me that he was going to the field to play football with his friends. I didn’t have a problem with that as I knew about his passion for soccer.
"However, I was shocked when his friends came to my home shortly after 5p.m. and informed me that Bheki had been struck by lightning and was dead. I just don’t know how this could happen, some suspect supernatural powers but I’m still too shocked to even think about such gory things,” said Gogo Nxumalo.
She further disclosed that Bheki was an orphan, having lost his father in a car crash in the late nineties, and his mother from an undisclosed illness.
He was a Grade Seven pupil at Nyakatfo Primary School and was a beneficiary of the OVC Fund.
When our newsmen paid a visit to Dololo Dlamini’s home, there was no sign of a living soul, and a neighbour said Dololo’s grandmother had gone to South Africa to inform his father about his (Dololo’s) demise.
Girl on way from
church also struck!
In another development, Police Public Relations Officer Superintendent Vusi Masuku reports that on Sunday, at around 3p.m, a 16-year-old girl was struck to death by a bolt of lightning while on her way home from church.
She was travelling on foot with her parents and friends when she met her death.
Also, on Sunday, at around 1700hrs, a 21-year-old man of Mhlangatane area was struck to death by a bolt of lightning while on his way home also from a soccer match, at Mhlangatane.
--- --- --- ---- ---- --- --- --- ---- ---- --- --- --- ---- ---- --- --- --- ---- ---- --- |
| 04/22/2008 12:00 PM Injured |
Tiahnee Kerewaro |
20.0 |
F |
Airds MacArthur region
Australia |
rubber & wood ?????? |
holding umbrella outside |
|
Outside,Umbrella |
| Lightning lady lucky to be alive
Melanie Darmody
Tuesday 22 April, 2008 12:01am
A PAIR of rubber thongs have been credited with saving Tiahnee Kerewaro's life after she was struck by lightning in her front yard last week.
Tiahnee was told by medical staff she was lucky to be alive when lightning struck the umbrella she was holding while walking from her car to her house eight days ago.
The 20-year-old Airds woman was thrown more than a metre by the strike, which entered her body through her thumb and exited via her shoulder.
Doctors told her the only reason she wasn't more seriously injured was because she was wearing rubber thongs and was holding the umbrella's wooden handle. They said rubber and timber didn't conduct electricity well.
"The lightning was that powerful it threw me back into a car parked outside my house and I passed out for a while," she said. "The umbrella went in one direction and I went in the other.
"My hand was frozen like I was still holding the umbrella. My arm and shoulder were completely numb and I couldn't talk."
But the effects of the electrical charge on Tiahnee's organs were the major concern for doctors at Campbelltown Hospital.
"They monitored my heart and I had to have blood tests done to measure the level of electricity through my body. I have to go back and have more just be sure it's all back to normal," she said.
"A nurse on duty that night was from the Northern Territory and said it was really common up there. She was the one who found the entry and exit points. She said lightning strikes were her specialty."
Tiahnee said she never expected she would become one of the few people struck by lightning.
"Take it from me, don't go out in an electrical storm, especially with an umbrella," she said.
"Like everyone, I thought this would never happen to me ... I've thought 'I'll be right' and then that happened."
Between five and 10 people in Australia die each year as a result of being struck by lightning. |
| 04/22/2008 10:20 PM Injured |
Todd Olsen 2 of 3 |
0.0 |
M |
Minneapolis Mn
USA |
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N/A |
Airplane,Construction site |
| see 1 of 3
Workers Struck By Lightning, Back The Next Day
Reporting
Esme Murphy MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ― Three construction workers were back on the job Tuesday night after lightning struck them while working at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport the night before.
Around 10:20 p.m., Todd Olsen was setting up construction cones near an airport runway. As long as there was no lightning in the sky, the construction workers could continue their work on the runway. But a storm came up quickly, giving them no time to take cover.
Jeremy Grinde was in a truck bed when he was hit in the head by a bolt of lightning.
"I didn't actually see where it hit. All of us just lit up blue," said Olsen.
Suddenly Olsen felt a shooting pain and could see the lightning jump from Grinde to him and then to a third worker, Boyd Heilig.
"It came off my arm here and actually pulled me to the truck," said Olsen. "I've actually gotten shocked by my house stuff and it's a lot worse than that."
"It was a little different," laughed Heilig.
Grinde was unconscious for a few moments.
"I think for a couple of seconds he was passed out and he got up and it was like he was hiding from something. I think he thought we hit him with something," said Olsen.
All three men are OK, and no one had to be hospitalized.
"If we would have been half on the truck and half off it I think all would have been smoking still," said Olsen.
All three of workers were back on the job Tuesday night. They're not worried because they're convinced lightning won't strike them twice.
Construction takes place on the airport runway at night, when there is less air traffic.
|
| 04/18/2008 12:00 PM unknown |
Laser Lightning |
0.0 |
U |
NM
USA |
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Education |
| Laser Triggers Electrical Activity in Thunderstorm for the First Time
Libraries
Science News Keywords
LASER LIGHTNING THUNDERSTORM OSA AIP NEW MEXICO KASPARIAN TERAMOBILE
Contact Information
Available for logged-in reporters only
Description
A team of European scientists has deliberately triggered electrical activity in thunderclouds for the first time, according to a new paper in the latest issue of Optics Express, the Optical Society’s (OSA) open-access journal. They did this by aiming high-power pulses of laser light into a thunderstorm.
Newswise — A team of European scientists has deliberately triggered electrical activity in thunderclouds for the first time, according to a new paper in the latest issue of Optics Express, the Optical Society’s (OSA) open-access journal. They did this by aiming high-power pulses of laser light into a thunderstorm.
At the top of South Baldy Peak in New Mexico during two passing thunderstorms, the researchers used laser pulses to create plasma filaments that could conduct electricity akin to Benjamin Franklin's silk kite string. No air-to-ground lightning was triggered because the filaments were too short-lived, but the laser pulses generated discharges in the thunderclouds themselves.
"This was an important first step toward triggering lightning strikes with laser beams," says Jérôme Kasparian of the University of Lyon in France. "It was the first time we generated lighting precursors in a thundercloud." The next step of generating full-blown lightning strikes may come, he adds, after the team reprograms their lasers to use more sophisticated pulse sequences that will make longer-lived filaments to further conduct the lightning during storms.
Triggering lightning strikes is an important tool for basic and applied research because it enables researchers to study the mechanisms underlying lightning strikes. Moreover, triggered lightning strikes will allow engineers to evaluate and test the lightning-sensitivity of airplanes and critical infrastructure such as power lines.
Pulsed lasers represent a potentially very powerful technology for triggering lightning because they can form a large number of plasma filaments – ionized channels of molecules in the air that act like conducting wires extending into the thundercloud. This is such a simple concept that the idea of using lasers to trigger lightning strikes was first suggested more than 30 years ago. But scientists have not been able to accomplish this to date because previous lasers have not been powerful enough to generate long plasma channels. The current generation of more powerful lasers, like the one developed by Kasparian’s team, may change that.
Kasparian and his colleagues involved in the Teramobile project, an international program initiated by National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in France and the German Research Foundation (DFG), built a powerful mobile laser capable of generating long plasma channels by firing ultrashort laser pulses. They chose to test their laser at the Langmuir Laboratory in New Mexico, which is equipped to measure atmospheric electrical discharges. Sitting at the top of 10,500-foot South Baldy Peak, this laboratory is in an ideal location because its altitude places it close to the high thunderclouds.
During the tests, the research team quantified the electrical activity in the clouds after discharging laser pulses. Statistical analysis showed that their laser pulses indeed enhanced the electrical activity in the thundercloud where it was aimed—in effect they generated small local discharges located at the position of the plasma channels.
The limitation of the experiment, though, was that they could not generate plasma channels that lived long enough to conduct lightning all the way to the ground. The plasma channels dissipated before the lightning could travel more than a few meters along them. The team is currently looking to increase the power of the laser pulses by a factor of 10 and use bursts of pulses to generate the plasmas much more efficiently.
Lightning strikes have been the subject of scientific investigation dating back to the time of Benjamin Franklin, but despite this, remain not fully understood. Although scientists have been able to trigger lightning strikes since the 1970s by shooting small rockets into thunderclouds that spool long wires connected to the ground, typically only 50 percent of rocket launches actually trigger a lightning strike. The use of laser technology would make the process quicker, more efficient and cost-effective and would be expected to open a number of new applications.
Kasparian conducted the research with his colleagues at CNRS, the University of Lyon, the University of Geneva, École Polytechnique and ENSTA in Palaiseau, France, the Free University of Berlin and the Dresden-Rossendorf Research Center as part of the Teramobile project. This work was funded jointly by the CNRS, DFG, the French and German ministries of foreign affairs, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Fonds national suisse de la recherche scientifique, and the Swiss Secrétariat d'État à l'Éducation et à la Recherche.
Paper: "Electric events synchronized with laser filaments in thunderclouds," Jérôme Kasparian et al, Optics Express, Vol. 16, Issue 8, April 14, 2008, pp. 5757-63; abstract at http://www.opticsexpress.org/abstract.cfm?id=157189.
About OSA
Uniting more than 70,000 professionals from 134 countries, the Optical Society (OSA) brings together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives. Since 1916 OSA has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing educational resources to the scientists, engineers and business leaders who work in the field by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made possible by optics and photonics. OSA publications, events, technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics. For more information, visit http://www.osa.org. |
| 04/18/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
1 every 5-10 years |
0.0 |
U |
New Zeland |
|
|
|
|
| Being struck by lightening rare
Wed, 16 Apr 2008 05:57a.m.
Monitoring equipment has shown that over 50,000 lighting strikes hit New Zealand each year -- but lightning only kills someone about once every five to 10 years.
In December 1986, lightning struck a man and his horse in Taihape, killing both, and in December 1984, a Te Awamutu man was struck by lightning and died.
According to a chief medical adviser for St John Ambulance northern region, being struck by lightning is rare but usually fatal.
Lightning is not only hazardous as a direct strike; it can also travel a long way down electricity supply lines, telephone lines and fence lines.
It has even travelled through water pipes and into metal sinks. In a thunderstorm with rain at a rate of 50mm an hour, the energy released in one hour is equivalent to the power demands of an average household for about 8000 years.
Electrocution from lightning injuries is not the same as receiving an electrical shock at home, though the leading cause of immediate death in both situations is cardiac or cardiopulmonary arrest.
Though they last only a few milliseconds, shocks from a lightning strike pass over the surface of the body in a process called "external flashover", and victims' burns seem to centre at the entry and exit points.
Aucklander Paul Mortimer, who survived a lightning strike in July 2002, said that at first he did not know what had happened.
He was running up his Birkdale driveway to avoid heavy rain when he heard a deafening bang followed by a bright flash that seemed to shoot through him.
Then he felt a warm sensation in his back and realised he had been struck by lightning, which had burned a hole in his shirt.
"I thought I was on fire, so I dropped and rolled into a water-filled culvert next to the driveway."
Mr Mortimer, then a chemical technician aged 21, stumbled into his parents Birkdale house. His mother, Pauline Mortimer, said: "At first we thought Paul was drunk. He was going, 'I can't see, I can't see. I've been burned'. Then he fell on the floor in the kitchen.
He was treated at North Shore Hospital for heart complications, from which he recovered.
His only other injuries were a graze on his back where the lightning hit and some damage to the retina of his left eye. It is thought the lightning entered his body through his back and exited through his eye.
"What saved his life, we reckon, were the rubber-soled shoes he had on," his mother said. |
| 04/17/2008 08:55 AM Injured |
Chen Ming-wen |
47.0 |
M |
Green Island Taiwan
China |
|
fishing at a reef |
N/A |
Beach,fishing,Near Water,Water |
| Taitung angler's genitals struck by lightning
The China Post news staff
TAITUNG, Taiwan -- An angler's genitals were struck by lightning while he was fishing yesterday morning at a reef on Green Island, located off Taiwan's coast in the eastern county of Taitung, according to coastal patrol policemen.
The angler, 47 and named Chen Ming-wen, was fishing at a reef off the Nanliao Bank of the Green Island, when a bolt of lightning -- attracted by the fishing pole he was holding -- struck, running down to his privates.
Soon after being informed of the accident at 8:55 a.m. that morning, firemen rushed to the spot and sent Chen to a nearby clinic for emergency medical treatment.
Coastal patrol policemen then sent Chen to Mackay Memorial Hospital for further treatment,
Doctors said that Chen had some 20 percent of his body burnt, and remained conscious, adding that they would conduct further examinations to see if Chen's sex ability is undermined or not.
Weathermen said that as the thunderstorm would linger in Taitung area, people had better not expose themselves to the open space.
Meanwhile, a veteran angler said fishing men should be aware that the general fiber-carbon fishing pole can conduct electricity. |
| 04/15/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
Roger McGill killed & others injured |
61.0 |
M |
Dargaville Northland
New Zeland |
time not accurate |
riding a horse |
N/A |
During the storm,Field,Horse,Hunting,Near Trees,Outside,Tree |
| Tuesday April 15, 08:42 PM
Wife got to say goodbye to man struck by lightning
A man hit by lightning while riding in a Northland hunt died the way he would have liked, his wife told his traumatised companions.
The unnamed man, reported to be 61 and from Auckland, died after a direct hit in a electrical storm near Dargaville, which also killed his horse.
Five other riders were injured and taken to Dargaville Hospital before being transferred to Whangarei Hospital. They were not seriously injured.
His wife was not part of the riding party, but was near the group when disaster struck, family friend Ivan Bridge told TV1's Close Up tonight.
"She was...very grateful she had the opportunity to be with him."
Mr Bridge said his friend loved riding, and travelled long distances to be part of events such as the one he died in.
"It was just a group out there having fun. His wife did make the comment that if he had to go, this would be the way he would have liked to go," Mr Bridge said.
"He and his horse both died instantaneously, within seconds."
The injured riders were attended to within minutes by two GPs, three registered nurses and an advanced paramedic.
Efforts to revive the dead man continued over about half an hour.
Mr Bridge was riding toward the front of the field, and did not see the lightning strike.
"The news filtered through that a horse had gone down and someone had gone down, but...we had no idea what the consequences were.
People riding in the front of the hunt "heard the noise and turned around and saw them on the ground.
`It happened very quickly, apparently the lightning entered through him.
"He wouldn't have know what happened to him and it probably continued through him into his horse.
"Everyone understandably was very upset, feeling for the family, our deepest sympathy go with the family.
"It was freakish, I've never heard of it happening in New Zealand."
One of the party, Lionel Unitt, who was hit in the leg by the lightning, said those taken to hospital were "fine".
"We were just hunting...We had a freak lightning storm come over and it struck unfortunately," he told Close Up.
He said he felt a shock in his leg but managed to stay upright.
Everything possible was done by those present, he said.
Sergeant Jonathon Tier said he had never seen anything like it in the 35 years he had lived in Dargaville,
Police said the victim was 50-years-old, but TV3 reported he was a 61-year-old Auckland man.
The hunt was organised by the Northland Hunt Club and the riders were searching for hares when the lightning storm struck.
Mr Tier said the rider who died was at the rear of the group.
"I've lived here for 35 years and I've never heard of anything like this happening here, it's just uncanny the amount of lightning we had over that short space over a couple of hours," he said.
The lightning was "rather bizarre" with some very loud claps and bolts shooting down into the ground, he said.
A Mahuta resident, who did not want to be named, said she saw the party leaving for the hunt and thought they were "mad".
"We got this massive crack of forked lightning.
"I've never heard such a huge bang."
A nearby transformer blew and the power was out for six hours, she said.
Wairarapa man injured in lightning strike which killed fellow rider
18.04.2008
By Jo Moir
A Wairarapa man riding alongside a fellow Northland Hunt horseman killed after lightning struck the group is today finishing the trek despite being injured in the same strike.
James Falloon, of Whangaehu Valley, was admitted to Whangarei Hospital on Tuesday along with three other riders, who were all suffering from minor electrical shock symptoms, Clare Blackburn, Whangarei Hospital media adviser said.
Roger McGill, 61, of Kaukapakapa, was killed in the electrical storm at 12.30pm while riding in a week-long hunt at Hilliam Road, Mahuta, near Dargaville's west coast.
Mr Falloon's wife, Jo, said she was shocked when she heard about the accident but had not rushed to her husband's side because he said he was fine and wanted to continue the trek.
"James is fine and was only taken to hospital for precautionary reasons.
"He's certainly traumatised by the whole thing but the guy who died was doing what he loved at the time and the rest of the group wanted to finish the trek for him," she said.
"I'm definitely looking forward to him coming home but that won't be until next week once the trek is finished."
She said the family, including their three children, were initially worried but from the beginning were told his injuries were minor.
"A friend of James' rang me when he was in the ambulance and told me right from the start that he was fine.
"James made sure we were contacted before we heard anything on the radio and started worrying."
Considering the "bad news events this week we feel as though this is very minor compared to all the other tragedies and we just feel really sorry for all those families and their grief", she said.
"James was in the wrong place at the wrong time but he came out fine and we are really lucky to still have him and he is very fortunate."
Ms Blackburn said four of the riders had been admitted to hospital and one was treated for minor injuries at the scene.
"The four men were kept in for a few hours for observation but were discharged later that night."
Mr Falloon is today continuing the trek and could not be contacted for comment.
|
| 04/14/2008 04:15 PM Injured |
fisherman |
45.0 |
M |
Port Elizabeth
South Africa |
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on a boat |
|
Boat |
| Lightning hits trawler
14/04/2008 08:07 - (SA)
Lightning kills two in Joburg
'Like a heater in my body'
Lightning kills father and son
Port Elizabeth - A 45-year-old fisherman was rescued from a trawler after it was struck by lightning offshore, the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said on Sunday.
NSRI's Port Elizabeth station commander Ian Gray said a rescue craft was launched about 17:15 on Saturday to rendezvous with the trawler 40 nautical miles offshore.
"Spirit of Toft with a Netcare 911 paramedic on-board rendezvoused with the trawler off Cape Recife and the semi-conscious fisherman was stabilised, transferred aboard our rescue craft and brought to port where he has been taken to hospital in a stable condition," said Gray.
|
| 04/12/2008 12:00 PM Injured |
Justin Hammer |
0.0 |
M |
Bella Vista Ak
USA |
time is am |
inside a house |
|
Indoors |
| Officials with the National Weather Service will decide today whether to re-evaluate damages in Washington and Madison counties to determine whether a tornado touched down, Zellers said.
Justin Hammer said lightning singed the hair off his arm as it struck the home of his motherin-law, Sandra Sandlin, in Bella Vista. The home, located off Lambeth Circle, was for sale and now is a total loss.
Hammer said he was dropping off his 4-year-old son at Sandlin’s home before heading to work when the lightning struck.
He said he felt the heat and saw bursts of purple out of the corner of his eye.
No one realized the house was on fire until they saw smoke coming through vents inside the home.
A Benton County dispatcher said lightening also started a fire that destroyed a home in Garfield and a barn near Monte Ne.
No injuries were reported.
Northwest Arkansas residents are predicted to get a break from the weather, as no rain is forecast for the next week. Temperatures are expected to reach the mid-50 s today and the upper 40 s Saturday and could drop below freezing Saturday and Sunday evenings, Snyder said. |
| 04/12/2008 04:30 PM Killed |
teen |
14.0 |
M |
Dublin
Ireland |
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on an open green space |
|
Field,Outside |
| Lightning bolt kills child
A teenager has died in hospital after being struck by a bolt of lightning in a south-west Dublin suburb.
The 14-year-old was injured during a freak thunderstorm on an open green space on Kilclare Crescent, Tallaght, at 4.30pm on Saturday afternoon.
He was taken to the National Children's Hospital in Tallaght in a critical condition but a hospital spokeswoman said the teenager died this morning.
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| 04/12/2008 09:00 AM Injured |
man |
0.0 |
M |
Lake Wylie SC
USA |
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at boat marina |
N/A |
Near Water,Outside,Water |
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Video: Man Nearly Struck By Lightning
Man Nearly Struck By Lightning
POSTED: 6:44 am EDT April 12, 2008
UPDATED: 8:50 am EDT April 12, 2008
LAKE WYLIE, S.C. -- A man was taken to the hospital after the dock he was standing on was struck by lightning.
Police said it happened early Saturday morning on Pier 49, a boat marina on Highway 49 at the Buster Boyd Bridge at Lake Wylie.
Authorities said the victim was shaken up, but is expected to be OK. |
| 04/12/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
Rickson |
17.0 |
M |
Kollengode Keanniyakumari
Chennai |
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| Two killed in torrential rains in TN
Chennai, April 12 Two people were killed as heavy rains lashed Tirunelveli and Kanniyakumari districts, even as 100 people were admitted to hospitals following outbreak of mysterious fever due to rains.
Reports received here said an aged man, Kandan (71), was crushed to death in a wall collpase at Vadakarai village in Tirunelveli district, while a 16-year-old boy Rickson was struck dead by lightning in Kollengode in Kanniyakumari district.
Rickson was among the 11 people, who sustained injuries when they were struck by thunder and lightning. He died at the hospital, where the injured were admitted. The reports said there were outbreak of mysterious fever in four to five villages in Kanniyakumari, following which 50 of them were admitted to hospital.
Published: Saturday, April 12, 2008 |
| 04/12/2008 12:00 PM Injured |
man using power washer |
0.0 |
M |
Ledyard Ct
USA |
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using power washer on barn |
N/A |
Outside |
| Ledyard —Lightning struck a barn behind a home at 14 Red Brook Lane just before 2 p.m. Saturday, causing a good deal of damage and sending one person to the hospital.
The lightning struck a 24-by-34-foot shed in the back yard of a home off of Pumpkin Hill Road, frying the electrical system in the structure and passing through two victims, according to Ledyard Fire Chief Jim Mann.
One victim declined transport to the hospital, but the other man, who wasn't identified, suffered first- and second-degree burns to his arms and hands. The man was using a power-washer at the time of the strike. Paramedics took the burned man to The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich.
Mann said the outbuilding suffered “quite a bit of damage” mostly to the barn's electrical system and some minor damage to the main house. |
| 04/10/2008 05:30 PM Killed |
Kwekyu Tawiah killed & 1 injured |
0.0 |
M |
Axim Nzema East District
Ghana |
|
in a large canoe |
|
Boat,fishing,On Water |
| What should have passed for a normal fishing trip turned tragic when one fisherman died on the spot while another sustained severe injuries, when their canoe was struck by lightning in the deep waters of Axim in the Nzema East District.
Twelve others, who were also in the boat, however, escaped unscathed and managed to sail ashore with the two casualties.
The name of the dead was given as Kweku Eshun, who was said to be the leader of the team.
The injured person, who is now paralysed and is responding to treatment, gave his name as Kwesi Bentum.
The names of the remaining 12 were given as Kweku Tawiah, Kofi Beyebi, Egya Apremu, Nana Akuu, Agya Kwawu, Kwasi Sampson, Adama Kojo, Kofi Akon, Kwesi Attah, Egya K. Kutrie, K. Kakrah and Uncle Essien.
The body of the deceased had several wounds on its back and neck, as well as twisted skin.
According to police sources, on the day of the incident, the fishermen, on board the canoe nicknamed "Sua Nyansah NO.3", had information that their colleagues in Sekondi were catching enough fish and, therefore, decided to follow that direction from Axim.
The sources said realising that their catch was not encouraging after three days at sea, the crew resolved to move to the deep waters offAxim to see if things would change.
They said the fishermen were fishing about 5:30 p.m. on April 10, 2008 when the weather suddenly changed and it started raining heavily, amidst thunder and lightning.
The sources said in the process, lightning struck Eshun from where he was controlling the canoe.
They said the unharmed fishermen tried to resuscitate him but he died before they landed at the beach.
Meanwhile, the body has been released to the family for burial, while police investigations continue.
Source: Daily Graphic
|
| 04/08/2008 07:55 AM Killed |
Yu Jinyun Killed husband injured |
0.0 |
F |
Shanghai
China |
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riding a motorbike |
N/A |
Motorcycle,Outside |
| A 61-year-old woman was killed by lightning in Shanghai on Tuesday, shortly after the local observatory issued a warning.
Yu Jinyun and her husband, Xie Baoren, 62, were struck by a bolt of lightning at 7:55 a.m. while riding a motorbike on a bridge. Yu died instantly while Xie was rushed to hospital.
The Shanghai Observatory issued a lighting warning at 6:46 a.m. and upgraded it at 7:27 p.m.. It also issued a strong wind warning.
Elsewhere, eight people died and at least 66 were injured when a thunderstorm that hit central China's Hubei Province. It affected about 350,000 people on Tuesday.
The disaster caused 25.9 million U.S. dollars (210 million yuan) in losses, with 10,850 houses and 22,666 hectares of crops destroyed.
The thunderstorm also cut electricity, water supply and road traffic. In the worst-hit Yuyang County, communications were interrupted for seven hours.
Source: Xinhua |
| 04/06/2008 05:30 PM Injured |
Jaafar Awang |
87.0 |
M |
Sungai Lalang Sungai Pentani
Malaysia |
|
relaxing in lazy chair on porch |
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Outside,Watching from Porch or Window |
| Hit by lightning but alive
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SUNGAI PETANI: An 87-year-old grandfather was struck by lightning on Saturday, and fortunately, he lived to tell the tale.
Jaafar Awang was relaxing in his lazy chair about 5.30pm on the front porch of his Kampung Sebelas, Sungai Lalang, home.
"It was getting dark. Suddenly, lightning struck and destroyed one of the porch pillars.
"I was hit because my chair was only one metre away," Jaafar told the New Straits Times.
He was treated at a clinic in the village for first-degree burns to the body, face and left thigh.
His son-in-law, Ilias Md Saad, said he dashed to the porch when he heard a bang.
"My father-in-law was waving his hands for help. He was too weak to move," Ilias said, adding that Jaafar relaxed in the porch every day at 4pm.
"I'm thankful my father-in-law was not seriously injured." |
| 04/05/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
2 military men killed 8 injured |
0.0 |
M |
Agartala Tripura
Thailand |
|
seperate incidents |
|
Military,Outside |
| Agartala, April 5 (IANS) At least two paramilitary personnel were killed and eight injured in separate lightning strikes in the north-eastern state of Tripura, officials here said Saturday. “A Border Security Force (BSF) jawan Subhash Singh, 48, of Allahabad died on the spot and three troopers were seriously injured when lightning struck at Bhabanipur, 60 km west of here,” an official said.
He said another lightning strike killed a Tripura State Rifles (TSR) personnel Dhirendra Malakar, 45, and injured another jawan at the Dhalai district headquarter town of Ambassa, 90 km north of here.
In yet another incident, four security personnel were seriously injured when lightning struck at Sabroom in south Tripura.
All the incidents took place Friday night when lightning and thunder, accompanied by high winds, lashed the state damaging standing crop and pulling down electric poles and telephone lines. |
| 04/04/2008 12:00 PM unknown |
detection network |
0.0 |
U |
Ranchi
Jharkhand |
|
start of detection network |
|
Education,Legal |
| Varsity to monitor lightning
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Ranchi, April 4: Birsa Agriculture University (BAU) is setting up lightning detection sensors across the state to study the frequency and intensity of the strikes.
The university wants to detect the most vulnerable areas of the state and take preventive measures.
The move comes after a 12-year-old boy and a woman were burned alive in lightning strikes last evening at Bero in Ranchi district. Last year, 82 had died and 112 were seriously injured due to lightning strikes.
“Preventive action against lightning strikes, like putting up arresters, can be taken only if vulnerable areas can be identified. We would also need information on the frequency and intensity of the strikes at such place. Lightning arresters cannot be put up at random,” BAU agricultural physics and meteorology department chairman Abdul Wadood said.
According to the plan, BAU would put up lightning detection sensors on its campuses in Kanke, Ranchi, Dumka, Hazaribagh, Jagannathpur in West Singhbhum, Darasai in East Singhbhum and at Chianki in Palamau. Each station would cover a radius of 300km and would be linked to the command centre at BAU.
Required equipment is being imported from Canada.
Once these are installed and commissioned, they would detect the vulnerable areas, record history of lightning strikes, frequency and intensity.
“This is the first time that such an effort is being made by a university anywhere in the country. This will be a basic research on a pilot basis and the outlay for the project is estimated at Rs.1.50 crore. It is being funded by the state government,” the scientist said.
Meanwhile, Ranchi Regional Development Authority (RRDA) has ordered owners and promoters of high-rise buildings in the city to install lightning conductors atop the building. Notices have been sent out to the promoters.
“No building plans are being approved unless a provision for installation of lightning conductors are clearly demarcated in the plan,” RRDA vice-chairman Maheshwar Prasad Mishra said.
|
| 04/02/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
4 dead 56 injured |
0.0 |
U |
Polonnaruwa
Sri Lanka |
|
|
|
Military |
| Lighting strike claims four lives
Article from: Agence France-Presse
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From correspondents in Colombo
April 02, 2008 01:42am
AT least four men were killed and another 56 injured when lightning struck a military training facility in eastern Sri Lanka on Tuesday, police said.
The victims were on a training exercise when they were struck in the district of Polonnaruwa.
Sri Lankan troops are locked in combat with Tamil separatists in the island's embattled northeast.
Thousands in total are said to have been killed in fighting this year as the government pulled out of a Norwegian-arrange truce between the two sides. |
| 04/01/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
6 killed 6 injured |
0.0 |
U |
Ganjam district Orissa
India |
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School |
| ORISSA
Apr 3, 2008
6 die, 6 injured in lightning strike
Wednesday April 2 2008 13:22 IST
ENS
BERHAMPUR/PARADIP: Six persons died and six others sustained injuries in lightning strike in different parts of the State on Tuesday.
Four persons, including a woman, died at two places in Ganjam district. One person died at Tilisingi under Bhanjanagar police limits while three of a family died in Keshpur under Khallikote police limits when lightning struck.
In Parlakhemundi, one person died and four others were injured in Zagili Street under Ward no 1 under Parlakhemundi municipality. The deceased has been identified as T Sabara Raju of the same area.
The injured were admitted to the district hospital here. In Jagatsinghpur district, a schoolgirl was killed and two were injured in Gambhapur village under Raghunathpur police limits. The 12-year-old girl Lopamudra Dwivedi of Gambhapur village had gone to attend the Utkal Diwas celebrations in Primary School when lightning struck her.
She was declared dead by the doctors at the district headquarters hospital. Two other children were discharged after treatment. Early Tuesday morning, thunderstorm occurred across the district in which black gram and green gram cultivation was severely affected
|
| 04/01/2008 unknown |
2 killed 12 injured in 2 incidents |
0.0 |
U |
Kurnool district
India |
|
|
|
Farming,Field,Outside |
| Guntur, Apri 01: The ‘unseasonal’ rain since last night has claimed three lives and damaged chilli and paddy crops in hundreds of acres.
While two persons were struck bylightning in Kurnool district, a tenant farmer died of a massive heart attack in his agricultural field in Guntur district after finding that the harvested chilli crop was washed away in the heavy rain on Monday morning.
According to this website's newspaper reports, 50-year-old K Shobanadri of Korrapadu village in Medukondur mandal, near Guntur, rushed to his field along with his son after a heavy downpour on Monday morning.
Even as they were trying to have a look at the 15 quintals of chilli, which was harvested only a couple of days ago, Shobanadri collapsed in the field and was declared dead by a local doctor.
Shobanadri took three acres on lease and cultivated chilli in three acres and cotton in the remaining area.
In Kurnool district, lightning claimed two human lives besides killing 45 goats at Parla village of Kallur mandal and also in Nallamala forest. Besides, six persons were injured in both the incidents.
In the first incident in Nallamala forest, T Venkataiah (43) died on the spot and his two sons - Narayana and Sivakumar - sustained serious injuries.
The injured were shifted to the Nandyal government Hospital where their condition was said to be critical.
The victims belong to Narayanapuram village in Bandiatmakur mandal and went to the forest to collect wood.
In the other incident, a 35- year-old Obulesu, who was working in his field at Parla, died on the spot and four others suffered serious injuries when lightning struck them. About 45 goats also died, having struck by lightning in the same village.
According to officials, standing crops paddy, maize, and groundnut were damaged in Kurnool division. Guduru, Kurnool, Kallur, Midturu and Kothapalli mandals received heavy rain.
The downpour also brought normal life to a halt in parts of north Telangana region, especially in Nizamabad district. Several trees were uprooted in Domakonda mandal disrupting movement of vehicular traffic for a few hours.
In Karimnagar district, the loss due to the rain was put at Rs 5 crore as crops like paddy in 17,000 hectares, mango in 1,200 hectares, chilli in 1,000 hectares and maize in 7,000 hectares were damaged.
At Machinapally village in Jammikunta mandal, 20 color TV sets burnt out due to short-circuit in the thunder and lightning. A farmer, Raji Reddy of Nansanipally village, was injured upon being struck by lightning. |
| 04/01/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
2 killed 12 injured in 2 incidents |
0.0 |
U |
Kurnool district
India |
|
|
|
Farming,Field,Outside |
| Guntur, Apri 01: The ‘unseasonal’ rain since last night has claimed three lives and damaged chilli and paddy crops in hundreds of acres.
While two persons were struck bylightning in Kurnool district, a tenant farmer died of a massive heart attack in his agricultural field in Guntur district after finding that the harvested chilli crop was washed away in the heavy rain on Monday morning.
According to this website's newspaper reports, 50-year-old K Shobanadri of Korrapadu village in Medukondur mandal, near Guntur, rushed to his field along with his son after a heavy downpour on Monday morning.
Even as they were trying to have a look at the 15 quintals of chilli, which was harvested only a couple of days ago, Shobanadri collapsed in the field and was declared dead by a local doctor.
Shobanadri took three acres on lease and cultivated chilli in three acres and cotton in the remaining area.
In Kurnool district, lightning claimed two human lives besides killing 45 goats at Parla village of Kallur mandal and also in Nallamala forest. Besides, six persons were injured in both the incidents.
In the first incident in Nallamala forest, T Venkataiah (43) died on the spot and his two sons - Narayana and Sivakumar - sustained serious injuries.
The injured were shifted to the Nandyal government Hospital where their condition was said to be critical.
The victims belong to Narayanapuram village in Bandiatmakur mandal and went to the forest to collect wood.
In the other incident, a 35- year-old Obulesu, who was working in his field at Parla, died on the spot and four others suffered serious injuries when lightning struck them. About 45 goats also died, having struck by lightning in the same village.
According to officials, standing crops paddy, maize, and groundnut were damaged in Kurnool division. Guduru, Kurnool, Kallur, Midturu and Kothapalli mandals received heavy rain.
The downpour also brought normal life to a halt in parts of north Telangana region, especially in Nizamabad district. Several trees were uprooted in Domakonda mandal disrupting movement of vehicular traffic for a few hours.
In Karimnagar district, the loss due to the rain was put at Rs 5 crore as crops like paddy in 17,000 hectares, mango in 1,200 hectares, chilli in 1,000 hectares and maize in 7,000 hectares were damaged.
At Machinapally village in Jammikunta mandal, 20 color TV sets burnt out due to short-circuit in the thunder and lightning. A farmer, Raji Reddy of Nansanipally village, was injured upon being struck by lightning. |
| 03/28/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
Chandra Rai |
43.0 |
M |
Silchar
India |
|
cleaning tea bushes |
|
Farming,Outside |
| Three killed in Assam Nor’wester
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Silchar, March 28: A nor’wester sweeping through in Hailakandi and Karimganj districts last evening claimed three lives, including that of a girl.
Chandra Rai, 43, a tea worker, was reportedly killed after being struck by a bolt of lightning at Aynakhal tea estate in Hailakandi last evening. He was cleaning tea bushes around 4pm when the storm struck.
Radhika Pashi, 48, another plantation worker, was crushed to death by a tree uprooted by high-velocity winds during the thundersquall. She was plucking tea leaves at the Chandkhira division of Langai tea garden, run by the Assam Tea Corporation (ATC), yesterday afternoon. Ten-year-old Rehana Begum Mazumdar was in her cottage at Baurghat and was killed at the same time yesterday.
Lala block in Hailakandi bore the brunt of nature’s fury that lasted nearly 25 minutes, leading to the collapse of nearly 200 houses and damage to scores of cottages. Vast areas plunged into darkness.
A cluster of habitats around Eraligul village and an adjoining tea garden under Karimganj district on the Indo-Bangladesh border were also damaged.
The storm wreaked havoc in the villages, flattening houses, uprooting phone lines and pylons. Branches of trees blocked roads, paralysing traffic. A preliminary official estimate put the number of houses razed at 600. The deputy commissioner of Hailakandi district, Tapan Chandra Goswami, said he had issued orders to revenue officials to assess the extent of damage caused to each storm-hit family before arranging adequate relief.
Since Sunday, storms have been lashing Lala block, part of the constituency represented by excise and border areas minister Gautam Roy. On Sunday Sachindra Hazra, 40, and Radhika Sonar, 42, workers at Koiya and Aeyanakhal tea gardens, died after being struck by lightning. |
| 03/27/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
45 deaths year to date in Brazil |
0.0 |
U |
Brazil |
|
|
|
|
| Brazil registers 45 lightning-strike deaths in 2008
www.chinaview.cn 2008-03-26 10:25:44 Print
BRASILIA, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Brazil has registered 45 deaths caused by lightning so far this year, while the country only reported 46 deaths in the whole of 2007, said Brazil's National Institute of Spatial Research (Inpe) Tuesday.
The rise of lightning-linked deaths in Brazil was related to the La Nina phenomenon, the cooling of the waters in the Pacific Ocean that globally alters the circulation of winds and favors the formation of storms, according to Osmar Pinto Junior, a researcher at Inpe.
He said he was surprised by the sharp rise of casualties. "We had forecast that lightning incidents would have been more frequent due to the La Nina phenomenon, but we would have never imagined that the numbers of deaths would almost double," he said.
La Nina is a large pool of unusually cold water in the equatorial Pacific that develops every few years and influences global weather. It is the climatic opposite of El Nino, a warming of the Pacific, and both have been associated with extreme weather around the globe. |
| 03/27/2008 12:00 PM Injured |
Surekha Sherigar |
0.0 |
F |
Mala Village
Mangalore |
|
inside her house |
|
Indoors |
| Udupi Staff Correspondent reports: One person was killed and one injured by lightning, while three houses were damaged owing to rainfall and lightning in Karkala taluk of the district. Karkala tahsildar K Muralidhar told on Sunday that Girish Shetty (36) was sleeping in his house at Miyar village when lighting stuck at around 11 pm on Saturday, killing him instantly. A woman, Surekha Sherigar, suffered minor injuries when lighting stuck her house at Mala village. The electrical appliances in her house were burnt.
Rain accompanied by wind had partially damaged two houses in the taluk, he said.
|
| 03/27/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
Girish Shetty |
36.0 |
M |
Miyar Village
Mangalore |
|
sleeping in his house |
|
In Bed,Indoors |
| Mangalore, March 27: Rain was unabated in Dakshina Kannada on Sunday. Asked for the weather forecast, an official of the Meteorological Department at Bangalore said: “Many places in coastal Karnataka are likely to receive rain or thunder showers in the next 48 hours.”
It has been raining in many places in the district for the past five days. S A Prabhakar Sharma, Headquarter Assistant to Deputy Commissioner, said that no major damage to property or life had been caused by rain in the district.
Chandrashekar Kamath, zilla panchayat member from Bellare in Sullia, said that construction of Ashraya houses had been stopped owing to rains. K T Kaveriappa, tahsildar of Belthangady taluk, said there was extensive damage to crop in Kutlur and Naravi villages. Reports of huts getting damaged in Mundaje, Ilinthila, Kalleea and Padanangadi villages owing to rainfall were coming in, he said. Sharma said that rain had given respite to people in Manjanady and Belma villages in Mangalore taluk.
Udupi Staff Correspondent reports: One person was killed and one injured by lightning, while three houses were damaged owing to rainfall and lightning in Karkala taluk of the district. Karkala tahsildar K Muralidhar told on Sunday that Girish Shetty (36) was sleeping in his house at Miyar village when lighting stuck at around 11 pm on Saturday, killing him instantly. A woman, Surekha Sherigar, suffered minor injuries when lighting stuck her house at Mala village. The electrical appliances in her house were burnt.
Rain accompanied by wind had partially damaged two houses in the taluk, he said.
Udupi tahsildar Udaykumar said 16 incidents of minor damage to properties had been reported in the taluk on Friday and Saturday. Kundapur tahsildar Arun Prabha said that a house and a shop were damaged at Byndoor in the taluk on Sunday. |
| 03/27/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
Louie Paul Gaovez & 5 injured |
17.0 |
M |
Sitio Catmon Agboy
Phillippines |
|
loading sugar cane onto truck |
|
Farming,Near Struck Vehicle |
| Lightning kills one, injures 5
BY GILBERT BAYORAN
Lightning hit and killed a 17-year-old farm laborer and caused minor burns to five of his companions Wednesday in Sitio Catmon, Brgy. Agboy, Candoni.
The fatality was identified as Louie Paul Galvez, 17.
Renante Castro, one of the five survivors, told ABS-CBN that they were loading sugarcane on a cargo truck, when lightning struck and hit them.
Castro and four other survivors are now being treated for minor burns at the Kabankalan District Hospital.
On the same day, a passenger jeep fell into a 50-foot ravine in Ilog, Negros Occidental, causing the death of Glenda Banares and injuries to 14 other passengers, police said.
Reynaldo Tolentino told the Ilog police that the steering wheel of his passenger jeep developed mechanical trouble, while he was negotiating a curve in Km. 112 in Brgy. Dancalan, Ilog.
The injured passengers, majority of them ambulant vendors, are now being treated for their injuries at the Kabankalan District Hospital.*GPB |
| 03/27/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
Louie Paul Galvez killed 5 injured |
17.0 |
M |
Sitio Catmon
Phillippines |
|
loading sugar cane into truck |
|
Outside |
| Lightning hit and killed a 17-year-old farm laborer and caused minor burns to five of his companions Wednesday in Sitio Catmon, Brgy. Agboy, Candoni.
The fatality was identified as Louie Paul Galvez, 17.
Renante Castro, one of the five survivors, told ABS-CBN that they were loading sugarcane on a cargo truck, when lightning struck and hit them.
Castro and four other survivors are now being treated for minor burns at the Kabankalan District Hospital.
On the same day, a passenger jeep fell into a 50-foot ravine in Ilog, Negros Occidental, causing the death of Glenda Banares and injuries to 14 other passengers, police said.
Reynaldo Tolentino told the Ilog police that the steering wheel of his passenger jeep developed mechanical trouble, while he was negotiating a curve in Km. 112 in Brgy. Dancalan, Ilog.
The injured passengers, majority of them ambulant vendors, are now being treated for their injuries at the Kabankalan District Hospital.*GPB
|
| 03/26/2008 12:00 PM unknown |
Mechanism of Lighting |
0.0 |
U |
PA
USA |
|
Lightning exlained |
N/A |
Education |
| Uncovering the mechanisms of lightning varieties
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
University Park, Pa. – The mechanism behind different types of lightning may now be understood, thanks to a combination of direct observation and computer modeling reported by a team of researchers from New Mexico Tech and Penn State.
"Our explanation provides a unifying view of how lightning escapes from a thundercloud," the researchers report in the April edition of Nature Geoscience.
Most people see lightning strikes that go from clouds to the ground, but some lightning goes upward, forming blue jets and gigantic jets. Perhaps the most dangerous lightning appears as "bolts from the blue" – lightning that begins upward, but then moves sideways and then downward to hit the ground as much as three miles from a thunderstorm.
About 90 percent of lightning occurs inside clouds and is not visible to the casual observer. The researchers wondered if lightning that appears within clouds and the lightning that escapes upward or downward shared the same development mechanisms.
"With the help of colleagues from New Mexico Tech, we were able to build a model of lightning and apply it to the various types of lightning," says Jeremy A. Riousset, graduate student in electrical engineering, Penn State. "Thanks to their observations and measurements, we know how lightning like 'bolts from the blue' happen. We know they develop like normal intracloud lightning before escaping the thundercloud at upper levels and branching toward the ground."
They also discovered that upward and sideward lightning events occurred shortly after normal downward lightning bolts occurred or intracloud lightning produced a local charge imbalance in the cloud.
Harald E. Edens, graduate student in physics, New Mexico Tech, working with Paul R. Krehbiel, professor of physics; Ronald J. Thomas, professor of electrical engineering, and William Rison, professor of electrical engineering, all at New Mexico Tech; and Mark A. Stanley, consultant, obtained detailed pictures of "bolts from the blue" using New Mexico Tech's Lightning Mapping Array, a three-dimensional lightning location system that uses multiple measurement stations to capture and time the VHF signal of the lightning. The Lightning Mapping Array can map lightning within clouds, something that normal optical photography or videography cannot do.
Riousset, working with Victor P. Pasko, associate professor, electrical engineering at Penn State, looked at the images from New Mexico and developed a model that explained the variety of lightning types. Lightning forms in clouds when different areas of the cloud become either positively or negatively charged. Once the electric field near a charged area exceeds a certain propagation level, lightning occurs. The type of lightning depends on where the charge builds and where the imbalance in charge exists in the clouds.
For intracloud lightning, the most common form of lightning, the transfer of charge occurs between the most negatively and most positively charged areas, the middle and upper parts of the cloud, respectively. Lightning that strikes the ground does so because precipitation or the storm's progression creates an excess of net negative charge in the mid-levels of the cloud. This results in either a direct ground strike or a bolt from the blue.
An alternative way to discharge a middle negative charge is through a gigantic jet, which propagates upward. The height of the clouds somewhat controls whether a gigantic jet or bolt from the blue propagates. The higher the top of the cloud, the more likely a gigantic jet will appear.
However, large positive charge in the upper levels of the storm causes blue jets.
"This is the first consistent definition of blue jets and gigantic jets," says Pasko.
In normal thunderstorms, blue jets are positive, originate in the uppermost part of the cloud and propagate continuously upward; while gigantic jets are negative, begin like a normal intracloud flash and propagate stepwise upward. Inverted polarity storms do exist and the charges of the various lightning types would then reverse.
The higher the cloud, the more likely either type of jet becomes. Thunderstorms in the tropics form with very high clouds increasing the chances of jets forming. Thunderstorms in the temperate United States do not have clouds quite so high, allowing a great number of bolts from the blue to occur. Bolts from the blue are very common in continental mid-latitude storms.
Every discharge of lightning from the cloud alters the charge status within the cloud, shifting the locations of the highest negatively or positively charged areas. These shifts along with mixing of the upper areas of the clouds can tip the storm toward bolts from the blue or jets depending on the circumstances.
"We are proposing a self-consistent, unified theory of lightning discharges inside and outside of clouds including blue jets, bolts from the blue and gigantic jets," says Pasko of Penn State. He adds that while their model can stipulate the requirements of each type of lightning, data collection during storms is too slow for the model to act in any predictive way.
The National Science Foundation supported this work.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Tech research sheds light on storm 'bolts from the blue'
Valerie Kimble New Mexico Tech
Nature Geoscience reports discovery in recent online article
New Mexico Tech Professor Paul Krehbiel has long looked upward as part of his research in atmospheric physics, and an online article in a recent Nature Geoscience reports on a new collaborative discovery.
Krehbiel and team identified how lightning can exit the top of a thunderstorm to produce discharges that propagate upward into the atmosphere.
Also credited in the study are Professors Ronald Thomas and William Rison, doctoral student Harald Edens and alumnus Mark Stanley, all of New Mexico Tech; along with graduate student Jeremy Riousset and Professor Victor Pasko, both of Pennsylvania State University.
Krehbiel and Pasko met at a scientific conference several years ago, and recently embarked on a formal collaboration to combine the detailed pictures of lightning obtained with Tech's Lightning Mapping Array of "bolt-from-the-blue" lightning flashes with computer simulations of the discharges, to better understand lightning discharge processes.
As Krehbiel explained, the upward discharges take the form of gigantic jets and blue jets, and have been reported for many years by commercial airline pilots, but only observed scientifically since the early 1990s.
While the various types of in-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning are reasonably well understood, the cause and nature of upward discharges have remained somewhat of a mystery.
Both types of jet discharges are infrequent, but the Tech researchers recently discovered several examples of blue jets in their lightning mapping measurements. They combined this with an earlier observation of a gigantic jet over Puerto Rico, obtained in 2001 by Pasko and Stanley.
With computer simulations of the storm electrodynamics and of the lightning discharges themselves, the observations showed how both types of upward jets are produced by storms.
In the study, an important clue to understanding how gigantic jets occur has been observations with Tech's Lightning Mapping Array of "bolt-from-the-blue" lightning flashes.
Bolt-from-the-blue discharges start off as normal upward lightning inside the cloud, but continue horizontally, exit the cloud top, and turn downward to ground, striking far from the storm core.
In addition to being a particularly dangerous and surprisingly common form of lightning, such bolts reveal a deficit of positive charge in the upper storm that sometimes allows in-cloud discharges to continue to travel out from the storm and upward toward the ionosphere as a gigantic jet.
These gigantic jets are thus the upward analog of normal, downward cloud-to-ground lightning, according to the scientists.
Last summer, while working at Tech's Langmuir Laboratory, a mountaintop research facility in the Magdalena Mountains, doctoral candidate Edens obtained a spectacular photograph of a bolt from the blue that started to develop upward above the cloud top before being forced to turn downward and eventually to ground.
The photo was quickly included as part of the paper being drafted at the time.
Krehbiel and colleagues suggest that the smaller blue jets result from electrical breakdown at the cloud top; whereas the energetic gigantic jets (extending upwards into the atmosphere for tens of kilometers) and bolts-from-the-blue (curving back down to Earth), originate from the dominant negative charge at mid-level in the cloud.
Krehbiel has retired from the classroom, but continues the research he started at Langmuir Laboratory in 1966 as a freshly minted research engineer at Tech
|
| 03/22/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
2 people |
0.0 |
F |
Sri Lanka |
|
under a tree on a cell phone |
|
Outside,Under Trees |
| Lighting strikes again killing two
By Supun Dias
The Meteorology Department yesterday warned people to take precautions against lightning with at two more deaths from lightning being reported from the Polonnaruwa and Dehiaththakandiya areas.
Polonnaruwa police said a woman in her early twenties was killed in Athumalpitawelyaya Bandi wewa while she was trying to take a call from her mobile phone under a tree. Three other family members who were with her at the time were also admitted to the Polonnaruwa Hospital.
In Dehiaththakandiya a youth was killed and one injured while they were collecting the harvest in a paddy field at Ranhilagama.
On Tuesday three youths were killed in Kotadeniyawa due to lightning.
Met Department Deputy Director S.H Kariyawasam said lighting was predictable due to the monsoon rains in the March-April season.
The Met Department urged people not to wander around in open areas like paddy fields and playing fields during this period. |
| 03/22/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
2 people |
0.0 |
U |
Jabalpur
India |
|
|
|
|
| Heavy rain at several places in MP
Bhopal, Mar 23 (UNI) Rainfall was recorded in several places in Madhya Pradesh even as two people were killed yesterday when they were struck by lightning in Jabalpur division.
According to the Regional Meteorological Department, isolated places in Rewa, Jabalpur, Sagar and Bhopal divisions received rainfall accompanied by strong winds. Malajkhand and Narsinghpur received heavy rainfall.
Rainfall accompanied by lightning was predicted at isolated places in these divisions in the next 24 hours.
Jabalpur received heavy rainfall overnight bringing down day temperature to 26.9 degree Celsius. A low of 20 C was recorded.
|
| 03/22/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
4 dead, several injured |
0.0 |
M |
Villupuram Tamil Nadu
Thailand |
|
adjusting cable tv |
N/A |
|
| he death toll due to the rains that have been lashing the State for the past one week has gone up to fifteen and several thousand acres of lands under paddy and plantain cultivation are submerged.
Though convective rain or summer showers are not uncommon, this year it has been quite heavy and all the places of the State received high to heavy rainfall inundating streets and agricultural fields.
.
Most parts of Chennai and suburban areas went under sheets of water after rains continued throughout the night. While Nungambakkam recorded 69.3 mm, at Meenambakkam it was 77.9 mm.
The trough of low pressure near Lakshwadeep Islands is to be the cause for coninuing rains. In many places, storm water drains were blocked causing annoyance and disturbance to residents and roadusers.
Significantly, this is the first time in over a decade that such a heavy downpour has been recorded. Many parts of towns like Tuticorin were flooded after a period of 16 long years. Notably, because of the incessant rains in the catchment areas of the Cauvery river the Mettur reservoir has been receiving copious inflow.
The water level at Mettur stood at 91.20 ft this morning against a full level of 120 ft. The release of water from the reservoir has been reduced to 100 cusecs because of torrential rains in the Cauvery delta region.
Casualties across TN
The rain-related incidents claimed two lives each in Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Virudhunagar, Pudukottai districts and Tiruchi, Tirunelveli, adn Tuticorin districts lost one person each. While Palani (46), a farmer of Kangeyanur in Villupuram district died due to a thunder bolt, four more men were seriously wonded by lightning and were admitted to hospital.
In Cuddalore district, Pratap (16) of Valluvakudi near Seerkazhi died after he was struck by lightning. Similarly, Vanagamudi (55), of Kondal and Peter of Kollidam (41) died after they were struck by lightning. Sadly, these men lost their lives when they tried to adjust the cable connection as the television sets blurred because of heavy rains. |
| 03/20/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
9+ killed |
0.0 |
U |
Dhaka
Bangladesh |
|
working in rice fields |
|
Farming,Field,Outside |
| Dhaka - At least nine people were killed after being struck by lightning during seasonal storms which battered hundreds of villages in southern and central Bangladesh, reports said Friday. The daily Bangladesh Observer said a newly-wed couple were among the four dead in the worst-hit southern Barisal province where the winds Thursday also toppled trees, uprooted electricity poles and disrupted road and ferry links.
Three farmers were fatally wounded as they were working on rice terraces during a raging electric storm in Madaripur district in southern Bangladesh, the report said.
Two other workers were hit by thunderbolt in neighbouring Shariatpur district. They died on way to hospital, it said.
|
| 03/19/2008 12:00 PM Killed |
3 youths killed, 4 injured |
0.0 |
U |
Walpita Kotadeniyawa
Sri Lanka |
|
returning home from youth center |
|
Outside |
| Lightning kills three
By Supun Dias
Three youths were killed and four others injured when lightning struck them last evening, while they were on their way home, in Walpita, Kotadeniyawa.
Kotadeniyawa OIC Irvin Ruparatne said that the youths were returning home after attending training at a youth centre when the lightning struck.
The injured were admitted to the Gampaha hospital for treatment.
Meanwhile the deputy director of the Department of Meteorology, Mr.S.H Kariyawasam, said that people should take precautions to avoid being struck by lightning considering the weather experienced during the past few days.
He explained that lightning would be experienced more frequently when there is less rain and more cloud cover. The inclement weather is expected to continue till mid-April after which the inter-monsoonal rains will take over.
|
| 03/18/2008 12:00 PM Injured |
Katherine Czarowitz |
17.0 |
F |
Arlington TX
USA |
|
inside a church |
|
Church,Indirect,Indoors |
| Girl Knocked To Ground When Lightning Strikes Church
POSTED: 5:42 pm CDT March 18, 2008
UPDATED: 11:26 am CDT March 19, 2008
ARLINGTON, Texas --
A teenage girl was injured during a lightning strike Tuesday afternoon.
The 17-year-old, Katherine Czarowitz, was knocked to the ground when lightning struck Rush Creek Christian Church's steeple and traveled through the roof and down the walls before eventually discharging near the girl, investigators said.
Czarowitz said she had a headache but was otherwise OK. She went home with her father a short time after the strike.
"It was just really scary. I don't know, I knew it was lightning, and it was just the big thunder right there -- and the crackle of it all -- it was just really scary," said Czarowitz.
Firefighters said there was light smoke inside the church but no major damage. |
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