Lightning Strikes ! or ... Does It ???

[barnakiel]

Please view and comment at will.


Mind these are very tall, very conductive masts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIFro3uwCoI

Why not hitting ???



Why NOT hitting ?


Cheers,
b.

[leecea]

From NOAA:

Where does lightning strike?

Most, if not all, lightning flashes produced by storms start inside the cloud. If a lightning flash is going to strike ground, a channel develops downward toward the surface. When it gets less than roughly a hundred yards of the ground, objects like trees and bushes and buildings start sending up sparks to meet it. When one of the sparks connects the downward developing channel, a huge electric current surges rapidly down the channel to the object that produced the spark. Tall objects such as trees and skyscrapers are more likely than the surrounding ground to produce one of the connecting sparks and so are more likely to be struck by lightning. Mountains also make good targets. However, this does not always mean tall objects will be struck. Lightning can strike the ground in an open field even if the tree line is close by.

[donradcliffe]

Good question. Its quite scary to be out on the water with a lightning rod during near continuous lightning strikes. I'm still trying to figure out why catamarans are twice as likely to be hit by lightning as monohulls.

[sailorboy1]

Lighting travels over 10 miles to hit the ground with up 300 million volts. The distance it saves by changing course to hit a sailboat mast is nothing to it.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

Good question. Its quite scary to be out on the water with a lightning rod during near continuous lightning strikes. I'm still trying to figure out why catamarans are twice as likely to be hit by lightning as monohulls.

My theory is that the longer water line of catamarans builds up the streamer charge more so than a mono hull.