After the family had gone to bed last night I was listening to the thunder storm getting closer. Starting getting some pretty close lightning flashes and suddenly it dawned on me.
After Oz day I had put up an old 550 full carbon mast on top of my garage with a little Aussie flag on top. I then realised all my gear was stored in that same garage.
I made it outside and pulled it down quick smart.
So my question is, do you think it wouldve attracted a lightning strike and if so what would of been the consequences????

I had my tent right at the base of this broken carbon mast made flagpole.On one very stormy night i was crapping myself lightning was hitting the reef probably 500 meters away...you know the ones..the flash and instant bang..This pole was easy the highest point and was grounded in the sand. So i dunno maybe i was just lucky



When i was in QLD i used to sail the northeaster's that blew into the storm fronts.I remember on a particular day the sky was black on one half and blue on the other.Sailing on Lake Cootharabah and as the storm got closer the wind sarted to drop as it does... dogging back a lightning strike hit the water some 500 to 600 meters away from me and a few others I felt a zap through the boom dropped the sail and swam the fastest i've ever swam for shore......
So just luck??

I have seen a doco on lightning strikes and this bloke got hit holding his carbon fishing rod.It melted the resin in the rod making it look sorta like a horses tail.He had third degree burns on his hands and arms and it blew his big toe off ...

Yeah moby lived in that spot for 2 seasons in the crusty lano van park...very robinson cruseo.Lotsa windsurfing and lotsa fun Best time of my life i reckon...free as a bird When i wasn,t there(in the off season) i was couch surfing in QLD surfing every day around the sunny coast

Was about 50 meters from the windsurfing park behind what was once called surfers hollow.The gate you can see is a track(urine ally) goes through to eddies point.

So you reckon ots safe to put back up??
I like to be able to walk onto the back deck and see what the wind is doing.

I got zapped once at Melville- the strike was a few hundred metres away and I got a belt through the boom powerful enough to thow me. This was a long time ago when I had an Aluminium mast and boom... I dont sail near thunderstorms any more.

Any high point that has any conductivity is at risk. Basically before the lightning strikes, charge migrates to the top of the object and collects there due to the strong electrostatic field. It doesnt have to be a great conductor for this to happen. When there is enough charge there, and the local voltage gradient is high enough (pointy objects create very intense voltage gradients at the point) a corona discharge can start creating a highly conductive path through the air. If this grows to the cloud (called a leader strike) the bulk of the cloud energy can be discharged through this ionised path (the main strike which does the damage). It doesnt really care if there is a few metres of bad conductor below it- it can easily jump that gap and go over it. The point is, the air is highly conductive all the way to the point of the object. So the remaining gap below the tall object is no biggie for lightning.

By making lightning rods highly conductive, the discharge current goes through the tall object rather than around it. If it has to go around, it will jump to anything remotely conductive nearby (path of least resistance).

The reason you dont stand under trees is because they explode when hit by lightning. The resistance of the moist internals of the trees is usually low enough to contain most of the lightning current inside the tree, but high enough to cause rapid heating. The sap heats up so quickly it vapourises and the pressure becomes intense. If the tree is not strong enough to contain it, it explodes sending chunks of wood flying very very fast.

Houses can be the same... pretty scary. A mate of mine used to service TV sets and he was called to a house in Mandurah that had been struck. All the appliences were toast. But the scariest thing was the way the lightning had made its way through the plumbing in the wall cavity, and onto the metalic backing on the bathroom mirror. The mirror exploded sending shards of glass across the room- hard enough to embed themselves in the wall! Dont want to freak everyone out... there are a lot of houses and they dont often get hit, and when they do the damage isnt usually that extreme, so safety in numbers?

Cars are pretty safe places to sit in a thunderstorm. You are surrounded by connected metal so there is nowhere for an electric field to build up inside.

Hmmmmmm, might have to leave it down now after reading your posts.
The mast was just tied to the side of my garage and was earthed into a garden bed. After reading Slowy's description its best if I keep my garages contents, including my gear, safe and snug.
Thanks everyone!!!!!!!!

decrepit said...

The scariest thing I recently read is that lightning can get diverted as much as 40Km away from the thunder cloud, can seem to come out of a clear blue sky!
I always thought I was safe until the storm was right overhead.

Saw a doco on lightening once which said similar. They had a lady who had been hit by a bolt from a cloud over 10 miles away

Their rule of thumb was

If you can hear it fear it
If you can see it flee it