Nicky Boyette – According to one version of a Chinese myth, thunder god Lei Gong was keeping watch on a village and mistakenly thundered death down on a woman he thought was throwing perfectly good rice into a ditch. Turns out the woman was discarding rice hulls after making a porridge for an elderly person. The Jade Emperor pointed out the mistake to Lei Gong and revived the woman. She became Lei Gong’s wife and was named Dian Mu, or Goddess of Lightning. To prevent her new husband from making any more mistakes, she would use two mirrors to throw lightning across the sky to brighten up the world before Lei Gong thundered (and blundered). That’s why lightning precedes thunder.
Lightning has been a mystery to observers from the beginning. Humans and pre-humans have witnessed it in volcanic eruptions, forest fires, hurricanes, snowstorms and thunderstorms. Native North American legends featured a powerful thunderbird whose wingbeats caused thunder while lightning flashed from its beak. Norse folklore has Thor wielding his mighty hammer accompanied by bolts of lightning to scare away trolls, which explains why there are so few trolls in Scandinavia today.
Ancient Greeks mythologized that Zeus, supreme ruler of the Olympian gods, had a never-ending supply of lightning bolts in a bucket which could be used as weapons, such as when a rival lusted after his wife. Mythologies from around the world had legends about a god of thunder and lightning, and often this god was the most powerful.
Science
Since ancient times, people have known there were fish that would shock a person when touched and that rubbing animal fur caused a static reaction. In 1600, English scientist William Gilbert focused on the phenomenon of magnetism and static electricity produced by rubbing amber, and created the word “electricus” to describe the effect of one element attracting objects after being rubbed.
In the middle of the 18th century Benjamin Franklin sold his possessions to finance the first systematic study to connect electricity with lightning. According to an Arizona State University (ASU) article, during a thunderstorm in 1752, “Franklin tied a key to a damp kite string, which was then tied to an insulating silk ribbon wrapped around his hand. Sparks were observed to be jumping from the key as Franklin’s grounded body provided a conducting path for the electrical currents that resulted from the strong electric field buildup in the storm clouds.”
Franklin, however, realized a practical use for his experiment. He hypothesized attaching a metal rod to the highest point of a building and connecting the rod to the ground, thereby directing the electrical current from lightning into the ground and diverting it from the structure to prevent fires. Franklin considered the lightning rod to be his most important invention.
Scottish meteorologist and physicist CTR Wilson contributed much to the knowledge of clouds and cloud formations, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in1927 for his invention of the cloud chamber. His work laid the groundwork for modern understanding of lightning discharges from clouds.
What makes lightning
Researchers have learned that the negatively-charged ions in clouds are larger than the positive ions, so they gravitate toward the bottom of the cloud while positive ions flow upward. The ASU article states, “The separation of particles causes a large electrical potential not only within the cloud itself, but also between the cloud and the earth. The electrical potential can be millions of volts in magnitude.”
Eventually, the resistance between the opposite ions does not hold, and an electrical discharge – lightning – is sparked either within the cloud, between clouds or from a cloud to the ground.
ASU maintains the average peak power of a lightning strike is about one trillion watts. The lightning flash heats up the air in its vicinity to 20,000°, three times the temperature of the surface of the sun. “The air that has been heated by the lightning is then compressed, and this produces a shock wave, which quickly decays to an acoustic wave as it flows away from where the lightning struck.”
We call the acoustic wave thunder. Although the lightning and the thunder occur simultaneously, light travels much faster than sound, so we see the electrical discharge before we hear the acoustic wave. The ASU article posits if a person counts the seconds after seeing lightning until hearing the corresponding thunder, then divide that number by five, a person can estimate the distance in miles to the location of the lightning.
Statistics
The odds of a person being hit by lightning are one in 750,000. The number of deaths and paid claims as a result of lightning have decreased significantly over the past 50 years. An average of 31 people per year have died in the United States as a result of lightning strikes since 2006, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with the number steadily decreasing. July is the cruelest month, claiming almost one third of the deaths, with June close behind. Almost 80 percent of the victims were males. Extending the statistical period another 20 years puts August in the danger zone as well.
Statistics from the Insurance Information Institute (III) indicate the average number of fatalities from lightning strikes per year in the United States going back 30 years is about 51. The continuing decrease in this number is due to “fewer farmers working in fields, along with technological advances, better lightning protection and awareness of lightning safety.”
Florida topped the list of states with lightning fatalities in 2014 with six. Arkansas tied for third with two. Florida was again leading in 2015.
A Weather Channel report stated a couple were fishing on Beaver Lake in Benton County in July 2015, when lightning struck and killed the husband.
Two people have died in 2016 from lightning strikes – one at a music festival in Larose, La., and the other picnicking with family in a grassy field north of West Palm Beach, Fla.
III reported homeowner insurance losses in 2014 amounted to $739 million, which is a 9.7 percent increase over the previous year. There were 213,278 claims in 2010 compared to 99,871 in 2014 yet the average cost per claim for those same years increased from $4,846 to $7,400. The number of claims has decreased because of education, awareness and better surge protection but the value of losses continues to increase in part because of the increase in home electronics.
Protection
Consumer demands in recent years have brought about better lightning protection devices. Homes and buildings are required to have lightning rods to direct electrical current away from the home to rods driven into the ground to avoid a fire.
At the very least, when lightning threatens residents should unplug vulnerable items such as televisions and electronic devices. Modern appliances have some built in surge protection, but power surges caused by lightning strikes can surpass this level of protection. Carroll County Electric Cooperative states it has lightning and surge protection built into its system. Nevertheless, CCEC advises homeowners to install external protection at the meter to provide another barrier from externally generated surges. In addition, it is advisable to install plug-in surge suppressors inside the home for televisions, computers, printers and other electronic devices. Remember to protect your hot tub.
A homeowner can also mark certain circuit breakers in the breaker box (with colored tape, for example) so they can be quickly clicked them off in preparation for a scary-looking thunderstorm.
Well pumps are also vulnerable to the surge from a lightning strike. In a split second, an unprepared, unprotected resident could lose televisions, computers and access to running water and suddenly get a glimpse of Ozark living 100 years ago.