Storms
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Cloud Lightning

US: Lightning strike sends wood flying

Jeff Brandt
The Telegraph
Tue, 13 May 2008 02:00 UTC
Alton, Illinois - A bolt from the blue struck a large tree in the 1700 block of Muny Vista Drive, sending charred wood and splinters flying hundreds of feet Tuesday morning.

"It was like a bomb hit it," Paul Woulfe said.



Tree struck by lightning
©The Telegraph/John Badman
A screen, apparently blown from the house, sits about 50 feet from a tree, background, that was struck by lightning Tuesday in the 1700 block of Muny Vista Drive in Alton. One side of the tree exploded, sending debris hundreds of feet.


Woulfe, maintenance man at Hillcrest Apartments on Muny Vista, was among those cleaning up the mess left after the impact from the lightning strike flung chunks of a 40-foot-tall cottonwood tree all over the complex's parking lot, some of them as large as 5 feet long and weighing 40 pounds, he said.
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Cloud Lightning

Massive Lightning Storm Over Saturn

Richard Macey
Smh.com
Sat, 03 May 2008 18:39 UTC
About every third night Trevor Barry, a retired Broken Hill mine worker, turns his attention to the sky. What he has been seeing has delighted scientists around the world.
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Cloud Lightning

UK: Family home hit by lightning

Chris Osuh
Manchester Evening News
Mon, 12 May 2008 07:40 UTC
Lightning struck a house as thunderstorms hit the town.

It blasted a chimney on Hodges Street, Springfield, causing a shower of debris in a family's front room.

The lightning travelled down the aerial and into the back of a TV set-top box, which burst into flames.

Four other appliances, which were connected on a four-way plug adaptor, caught fire.
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Cloud Lightning

India: Lightning kills five children in Orissa


IANS
Tue, 13 May 2008 07:35 UTC
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.
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Cloud Lightning

UK: Boy sleeps on as lightning hits


BBC
Sat, 10 May 2008 07:33 UTC
A three-year-old boy has slept through a lightning strike which blew a hole in his bedroom wall.

Elis Roberts's parents found him fast asleep in his room, which was covered in masonry, plaster and dust.

The lightning blew all the light bulbs and electrical equipment in the house and other homes in the Flintshire road as storms hit north Wales.

"We have been so very lucky," said his mother Pat Mulreay, of Edwin Drive, Flint, after Saturday morning's strike.

"It could have been a lot worse."

The lightning hit Edwin Drive at about 0045 BST as many parts of Wales experienced thunder and lightning and some had flash flooding.

The blast, heard throughout the neighbourhood, sent debris all over the bedroom, covered in Liverpool Football Club posters and other memorabilia.
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Cloud Lightning

Kansas, US: Lightning strike injures teen in shower

Steve Fry
The Topeca Capital Journal
Sun, 11 May 2008 07:26 UTC
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.
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Cloud Lightning

India: Lightning kills 11 in Malda & Siliguri


The Telegraph, India
Thu, 08 May 2008 11:17 UTC
Lightning killed 11 persons in north Bengal as a Nor'wester raged through the region this afternoon.

Ten of the victims, including a CPM panchayat poll candidate, were from Malda.

Taking a break from a hectic campaign schedule, Habibur Rehman, 42, contesting from the Bhado gram panchayat, was sipping tea at a roadside stall, when a bolt from the sky struck him. He died on the spot.
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Cloud Lightning

US: 49 lightning strikes hit Tahoe National Forest on Sunday


Bonanza News Service
Tue, 06 May 2008 14:04 UTC
Nevada city - The lightning seen over the area on Sunday brought 49 "touchdowns" to the Tahoe National Forest and many more throughout the Sierra.
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Cloud Lightning

Chile: Dirty thunderstorm shoots lightning from volcano

Paul Simons
The Times
Thu, 08 May 2008 14:01 UTC
Recent pictures of the Chaiten volcano in Chile showing lighting bursting out show a marvellous phenomenon known as volcanic lightning.

The photo of lightning bursting out during a volcanic eruption in Chile, above, was a truly awesome sight. Although the picture seemed to show a thunderstorm colliding with the cloud of volcanic ash, it actually showed a marvellous phenomenon known as volcanic lightning.

Usually, lightning is sparked off by countless tiny pieces of ice inside a turbulent thundercloud banging into one another. Each collision generates static electricity, rather like a balloon rubbed on a jumper.



Image
©Unknown

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Cloud Lightning

NASA Spacecraft Tracks Raging Saturn Storm


sciencedaily.com
Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:23 UTC
As a powerful electrical storm rages on Saturn with lightning bolts 10,000 times more powerful than those found on Earth, the Cassini spacecraft continues its five-month watch over the dramatic events.

Scientists with NASA's Cassini-Huygens mission have been tracking the visibly bright, lightning-generating storm--the longest continually observed electrical storm ever monitored by Cassini.



Saturn storms
©NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
It is no Great Red Spot, but these two side-by-side views show the longest-lived electrical storm yet observed on Saturn by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The view at left was created by combining images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters, and shows Saturn in colors that approximate what the human eye would see. The storm stands out with greater clarity in the sharpened, enhanced color view at right.


Saturn's electrical storms resemble terrestrial thunderstorms, but on a much larger scale. Storms on Saturn have diameters of several thousand kilometers (thousands of miles), and radio signals produced by their lightning are thousands of times more powerful than those produced by terrestrial thunderstorms.
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