View Full Version : Space Needle Lightning Strikes
Cookie
05-20-2009, 04:49 PM
I saw the Space Needle in Seattle was struck by lightning? They said it was Eeerie.
http://www.komonews.com/weather/blog/45502097.html (http://www.komonews.com/weather/blog/45502097.html)
http://media.komonews.com/images/090520_needle_lightning_younews_sm.jpg
Cookie
05-20-2009, 07:25 PM
I couldn't figure out how to post that, I was hoping you could.
So, what was it like during this storm I heard it was a big?
Redwood
05-21-2009, 06:52 AM
Lightning strikes to tall structures are pretty common. I would venture to guess that the picture shown is not at all an uncommon event at the Space Needle. Over here on the right coast probably the most commonly taken picture of lightning striking a building is probably The Empire State building taking a strike. Here is 2 of 206,00 from a google image search. http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&sa=1&q=empire+state+building+lightning&btnG=Search+Images&aq=f&oq=
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2/Redwood39/11920166.jpghttp://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2/Redwood39/4.jpg
A google seach for the space needle yielded 133,000 results althoug not all were lightening strikes. http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&sa=1&q=space+needle+lightning&btnG=Search+Images&aq=f&oq=
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2/Redwood39/needlelightning.jpg
Ian Gills
05-21-2009, 09:21 AM
That's why I have GFCIs in my bathroom. If I am sitting in the bath, watching TV while drying my hair with the hair dryer I can rest assured that I will be perfectly safe should a several hundred million volt bolt of lighting strike my abode at 5,000 to 20,000 amps. I'd just hear that little 'click' as it tripped.
;)
Redwood
05-21-2009, 11:04 AM
Ian, I don't want to burst your safety bubble but if that GFCI was to have lightning go through it...
There is nothing inside of it that would stop the lightning and you would not hear the click...:eek:
Ian Gills
05-21-2009, 04:47 PM
Surely, then, a 15 amp Square-D breaker would protect my soapy body as God's fury rained down on my armored cable?
cwhyu2
05-21-2009, 06:13 PM
Surely, then, a 15 amp Square-D breaker would protect my soapy body as God's fury rained down on my armored cable?
sure it would :D
master plumber mark
05-21-2009, 06:30 PM
Surely, then, a 15 amp Square-D breaker would protect my soapy body as God's fury rained down on my armored cable?
If you got hit by a real bolt from above,
their is a good chance that you would still be toast....
jdf405
06-23-2009, 07:19 AM
A few years ago I hiked up 14,252 foot White Mountian in California. At the top there's a University of California research station with a bunch of weather equipment and... internet of all things.
Anyway, they have quite the rig up there for protecting against lightning. The hut had a lightning rod on each corner of the roof. These rods were all connected together in parallel. Then a thick wire went from each corner to a huge lead cable (about 2" thick) that is burried in the rock & rubble at the top. I asked someone working there about that and they said they can't get a good ground so they use lead since the rock & rubble bites into it.
I started the hike at 6AM and by 11AM clouds were brewing. We tagged the summit and high tailed it back down!
Thatguy
06-23-2009, 09:36 AM
All of us live in the past about 100 milliseconds, some of us :D longer into the past.
You'd never know what hit you.
Cookie, is your avatar a greatly magnified fertilized cat egg, and she will have twins?
Cookie
06-24-2009, 01:04 AM
I can't remember which one was there, lol, how funny.
This is nosy, I know, but I know you have to have an advanced degree in math, where did you get yours at?
Thatguy
06-24-2009, 12:13 PM
You tawkin' to me? Who you tawkin' to?:p
Cookie
06-24-2009, 12:18 PM
ha ha ha ha, yes you, lol. :p
Thatguy
06-24-2009, 12:24 PM
Got my BSEE from what used to be called "Nurk College of Engineering" in lovely Newark, N.J. (I still have bad dreams about that place) and an MSEE from U. of MD.
No math degree but I did pursue one for a while while I was in TX. I'm jealous of anybody, even Will Hunting, who lived in Mass and/or who went to MIT.:p
Never got interested in W.C. Fields or those stooge gentlemen you mentioned but Laurel & Hardy were funny.
But then, I'm . . .o. . .l. . .d. . .
Cookie
06-24-2009, 10:20 PM
Thank you for not mind me being snoopy. Your answers always interest me, where it concerns math and science.:)
Cookie
07-09-2009, 02:03 PM
Now, this will make you think.
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?cl=14410338
Lightning came through a kitchen ceiling light fixture and struck a woman in the chest, standing under it, while holding a pan.
Her young son, called 911 and she is fine.
Thatguy
07-09-2009, 02:49 PM
Surely, then, a 15 amp Square-D breaker would protect my soapy body as God's fury rained down on my armored cable?
. . .That depends on where you live
http://books.google.com/books?id=SYhA5Kp7a_wC&pg=PA139&lpg=PA139&dq=isocenauric+US&source=bl&ots=WNYspWl13g&sig=tS9Z-1O9yA_ZTuYPoqUyOxHvXTg&hl=en&ei=kFxSStmVE5G0NsahqMEB&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3
and if She's mad at you.
15A x 100 ohms (a soapy, wet, body) = 1500v and lightning is more than 1500v. Yeah, the breaker will trip. . .
With that Texas kitchen strike, She was probably aiming at someone else [whose name rhymes with "tush"?]. :)