Top Comments 5-17-08 -- Lightning Edition

Today I was helping my husband work on my car. OK, I was sitting on the deck talking to him while he worked. Anyway, one of his co-workers, Mike,  stopped by along with Tim, a friend of his we did not know.  While Mike and my husband talked cars, Tim and I chatted about our dogs.

At one point Tim looked at the big old walnut tree on the other side of the driveway and remarked that he was surprised we would plant a walnut tree so close to our house. I explained that the tree was there long before we bought the house, but walnut trees are fairly common in this area. He replied that he thought everyone knew that walnut trees attract lightening. I didn’t, but he assured me there was a lot of research that proved it.

So I decided to find the copious body of research that supported his claim. And I found it – in the Superstitions Database. However, I also found out a lot of interesting things about lightning. Since I know some of you, like me, enjoy watching lightning storms, I thought I’d share some real facts about lightning.

Many people learned everything they know about lightning from Ben Franklin.  Franklin believed it was electricity, and experimented with a kite during a thunderstorm to prove he was right.  Franklin was lucky to have survived the kite-flying episode to write the eighty-page book about his many other experiments with electricity which made him famous. Others who tried the experiment with the kite were killed, tragically confirming the deadliness of lightning.

But before Franklin, people were on their own to explain lightning, with predictable results. Throughout the world, early man turned to the supernatural for an explanation and concluded that  thunder and lightning were the means by which the gods made their presence known.

• Thunderbolts were weapons in the hands of the gods, who threw them at offenders. Apparently there were enough offenders among the Romans that it took two gods to deal with them. Jupiter hurled thunder bolts by day, Summanus at night.


• Among the Greeks and Romans places struck by lightning were set aside as sacred. Anyone killed by lightning was buried on the spot where the divine anger had struck rather than given the usual funeral.


• Among some peoples of the African Gold Coast fires started by lightning are allowed to burn, and persons hit by lightning are given no help so as not to interfere with divine will.


• Acts once believed to be punished by lightning include lying under oath and desecrating sacred places like churches and tombs.

Thunder also had its share of religious adherents. Scandinavians believed it was Thor, the god of thunder, throwing his hammer at giants. Some believed it was God wrestling the Devil to the ground. American Indians heard it as the great thunderbird flapping its wings. In the folklore of certain rural areas in the United States thunder was caused by God rolling his water barrel across the floor of heaven.

As my conversation with Tim indicated, folklore still persist in regard to lightning. The bay tree, aspen, beech, laurel and hawthorn are among a number of trees that were believed to ward off lightning. Other trees were supposed to attract lightning, including the walnut, locust, oak and ash.

Today, a lot of what we know about lightning comes from the U.S. Forest Service. For example, in western states, where there is less rain and the trees are mostly pines, lightning is the main enemy of the forest:

• lightning sets off more than 9,000 fires each summer


• one year in the national forests of Montana and Idaho, 1,488 lightning fires were counted in 10 days, including 335 fires in one 24-hour period


• lightning doesn’t have to cause a  fire to kill trees – a jolt of 10,000-20.000 amperes-sometimes several hundred thousand (compared to 15 amperes for the house-hold current) literally electrocutes the trees and has been known to kill 160 trees with one strike


• when trees are merely injured, lightning flashes down inside the bark (the path of highest moisture and least resistance) with heat of 15,000 - 60,000 ◦F, they soon fall prey to bark beetles, which then  attack the healthy trees nearby.

The Forest Service doesn’t just record statistic, it conducts research. Reviewing reports from their network of fire observation post in national forests, they discovered that thunderstorms with hail produce more than twice as much lightning as storms without hail. In addition, the lightning was more intense and came faster, and the larger the hailstones the more lightning there was. The Forestry Service analysts reasoned that if the hail in a cloud were reduced, it should follow that there would be less lightning from it,  and the way to reduce the hail was to seed the moisture of the cloud into raindrops before it had time to freeze into hailstones.

Armed with this information, in 1965 they implemented Project Skyfire, a three-year project of experimental cloud-seeding. The results were dramatic: during thunderstorms seeded with silver iodide, there were 66 percent fewer lightning strikes to the ground, 50 percent fewer cloud-to-cloud flashes, and 54 percent less total lightning. In short, seeding cut the lightning by more than half.

Donald Fuquay, director of Project Skyfire, concluded that seeding of thunderstorms with heavy doses of silver iodide was an effective measure against fire from the clouds. Oddly enough, there is no evidence on the Forest Service site to indicate this program was pursued any further.

Here are a few more fun facts about lightning, courtesy of the intertubes:

• Not only are thunder and lightning impressive to hear and see, but there is a great deal of it. Worldwide, there are estimated to be some 2,000 thunderstorms going on all the time.


• Lightning strikes almost anywhere, but more frequently in some places than in others. In the space of one year, as re ported by the Federal Aviation Administration, lightning struck airplanes in flight one thousand times. Only two airliner crashes have been a result of lightning.


• It is folklore that lightning never strikes .twice in the same place. The Empire State Building in New York City it hit an average of 23 times a year, with a  record of 48 times.


• In medieval times the ringing of church bells inscribed "I break the lightning" during thunder storms, were supposed to protect the populace. Unfortunately, given lightning’s propensity for striking the highest points – like bell towers – it often had the opposite effect from what was intended. In 33 years 103 bell ringers died in lightning hits on 386 European church towers.

But sometimes we are struck not by lightning, but by a brilliant comment in a diary. When that happens, send a link, along with your dKos username to:

                                           Topcomments at gmail dot com

And tonight’s striking comments....

From orangeclouds115;

This comment by blue jersey mom is ohhh so true.

From A Siegel;

Amid  my discussion of George Will, Newsweek editors, and "just wondering" about idiocy,  a number of Kossacks made poignant, insightful, and otherwise worthwhile comments.
- To start with, not as a surprise to me, Shlpik wrote  a rephrasing of the challenge, the question, and the issue that should be read by everyone in the nation.
- ObamaManiac2008 explains why I can never win an argument with a denier.
- SC Kitty quotes from a study providing  information on the payoff from moving toward a clean energy economy.

From me;

Califlander points out the disproportionate effect of global warming on the poor in A Siegel's Newsweek editors: are you idiots?

Vyan nails the reason why there is a double standard applied to Obama in ebonyqueen's I'm sick and tired.

Jimdotz has an interesting idea to help the GOP out of its malaise.

Top Mojo excluding search-identifiable tip jars, first diary comments, and C&J comments:

1 - Thank you.....ebonyqueen.....141
2 - It was, wasn't it?.....Aqualad08.....113
3 - Come on Teddy.....realcountrymusic.....93
4 - As the Republican.....TomP.....92
5 - The dogs won't eat the dog food.....Dallasdoc.....85
6 - in America double standard is the game.....Adept2u.....80
7 - Yet ........A Siegel.....80
8 - The REAL issue they don't talk about.....Its All So Goofy.....76
9 - I think alot of items you mentioned are already.....wader.....75
10 - Good for you.....dabize.....72
11 - You're not alone.....Laughing Vergil.....72
12 - I am a 57 year old.....nolalily.....69
13 - I stopped reading Will decades ago.....Youffraita.....68
14 - Amen! n/t.....mjd in florida.....68
15 - Obama is a master of framing.....DBunn.....65
16 - As a "older" woman (0ver 50) the line of thinking.....Tanya.....62
17 - Listen in no way would I, strong, older Feminist.....Wary.....62
18 - As someone who greatly admires Yitzhak Rabin.....v2aggie2.....61
19 - One Voice. Can Change A Room. GOBAMA! FIRED UP!.....concerned.....60
20 - You're not the only one......melvin.....59
21 - Yes, and thanks to the diarists.....DelicateMonster.....56
22 - You Watch This Guy........Jamison Heart.....56
23 - Barack Obama is twice.....eyeswideopen.....55
24 - Don't forget to email msnbc...nt.....Lava20.....54
25 - Thanks for writing what I've been thinking.....tuckerm.....54
26 - Brilliant granny...absolutely brilliant......soms.....53
27 - Kennedy stood for us for years,often a lone voice.....Tamar.....53
28 - You're the age of my daughters.....VA gentlewoman.....52
29 - I'm hoping for many more press conferences.....ybruti.....51
30 - wader--great comment, and ebony, we're.....begone.....49

Top Mojo with No Exclusions:

1 - Tips for proud feminists and Obama supporters!.....Queen Alice.....492
2 - Tips/ Recs.....Hope08.....474
3 - Tips / Mojo: 17 May 2008.....A Siegel.....380
4 - Tips?.....Tetris.....348
5 - I know this is "way long".....Granny Doc.....334
6 - tips.....dday.....290
7 - Prayers for Recovery.....Steven R.....276
8 - As a white man........Tim Kraft.....200
9 - Tip Jar.....pastordan.....177
10 - tips/recs for Oregon maps!.....ObamaManiac2008.....171
11 - Thank you.....ebonyqueen.....141
12 - Tip Jar.....Oreo.....126
13 - It was, wasn't it?.....Aqualad08.....113
14 - tips for Ted Kennedy.....jazmen8.....113
15 - Vent Hole.....ek hornbeck.....110
16 - Tip jar.....George Dayton.....108
17 - I thought this worth some attention.....teacherken.....97
18 - tips.....njhoo.....97
19 - Come on Teddy.....realcountrymusic.....93
20 - As the Republican.....TomP.....92
21 - Good morning.....Frankenoid.....91
22 - Tips please.....Kitty.....86
23 - The dogs won't eat the dog food.....Dallasdoc.....86
24 - Tips, tears, tirades........mommyof3.....83
25 - in America double standard is the game.....Adept2u.....80
26 - Yet ........A Siegel.....80
27 - Dumbya Bush is an insult to humanity......manwithnoname.....78
28 - The REAL issue they don't talk about.....Its All So Goofy.....76
29 - I think alot of items you mentioned are already.....wader.....75
30 - Tip Jar.....Eyz.....74