Author Topic: Lightening strikes multiple SoCal beach-goers!  (Read 7076 times)

TallDude

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Lightening strikes multiple SoCal beach-goers!
« on: July 27, 2014, 04:58:56 PM »
Crazy weather today. Just started pouring warm rain. Thunder and lightning near by. Hot and muggy. I've seen this weather before here, it's rare, but nothing like what just happened in Venice Beach. A good reason to not have an aluminum paddle in your hands!

http://abc7.com/news/lightning-strike-causes-injuries-at-venice-beach;-8-patients-transported-/224159/
It's not overhead to me!
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Subber

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Re: Lightening strikes multiple SoCal beach-goers!
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2014, 05:10:04 PM »
Me thinks El Nino. 

Does carbon fiber conduct electricity?
« Last Edit: July 27, 2014, 05:11:55 PM by Subber »
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TallDude

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Re: Lightening strikes multiple SoCal beach-goers!
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2014, 05:18:30 PM »
It does. Not a great conductor, but a conductor none the less.
It's not overhead to me!
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Weasels wake

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Re: Lightening strikes multiple SoCal beach-goers!
« Reply #3 on: July 27, 2014, 05:43:57 PM »
Yikes!  That's nothing to play around with.
I was caught one day, about 20 years ago, windsurfing on a lake using an aluminum mast, lightening hitting the hills all around of it, scared the shit out of me.  I'm lucky to still have hair.
It takes a quiver to do that.

supthecreek

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Re: Lightening strikes multiple SoCal beach-goers!
« Reply #4 on: July 27, 2014, 06:54:54 PM »
Jeeze... that sucks! I am sorry to hear about people getting injured just enjoying a day at the beach :(


SUPflorida

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Re: Lightening strikes multiple SoCal beach-goers!
« Reply #5 on: July 27, 2014, 06:59:23 PM »
Carbon fiber is an "excellent" conductor of electricity...

hbsteve

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Re: Lightening strikes multiple SoCal beach-goers!
« Reply #6 on: July 27, 2014, 07:04:48 PM »
On one of the L.A. t.v. shows this evening, they interviewed two SUPpers that were out in Venice.  They were on carbon fiber boards.  The guy said they felt the struck.   The lifeguards checked them out, and said they were fine.  LUCKY!

OUTSIDEWAVE

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Re: Lightening strikes multiple SoCal beach-goers!
« Reply #7 on: July 27, 2014, 07:10:08 PM »
crazy for sure. so let me think go surfing  get struck by lightning uh what next sharnadoes oh wait  that already happened no seriously  i guess were in for some shark attacks to even the odds it was crazy rained thundered and lighting in encinitas.  no rain   glass and good waves a in carlsbad.
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SUPcheat

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Re: Lightening strikes multiple SoCal beach-goers!
« Reply #8 on: July 27, 2014, 08:40:46 PM »
Just a ways down from where I used to live on 28th as a graduate student when Venice was cheap.

I lived in LA for five years, never a hint of lightning, only rained for about two weeks in the winter.

I did go hiking in the mountains and saw some lightning there once at a distance.

Humid tropical air masses have been moving through NoCal, too.  One was today, the clouds looked spectacular in their depth and detail. The tropical air, though, does not feel as nice as the typical Santa Cruz "beach prozac" on the drier, cooler days.
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supdiscobay

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Re: Lightning strikes multiple SoCal beach-goers!
« Reply #9 on: July 27, 2014, 08:47:01 PM »
Back in the 80's, when I was living in Tahoe area, we would windsurf near the east end of Donner Lake.
The way the weather patterns are during the summer months, you can wake up to to clear blue skies in the morning and by noon thunderstorms everywhere.
We were sailing in 18+ winds one day when the boomers started, and if course the wind picked up to 25+.  A bit later we saw lightning at the west end of the lake.  We all came in and sat there in the trees by the shoreline, watching the lightning hit the water about 200yds out.  It was amazing to see, as it would hit the water and then branch out just above the water several hundred feet.  Just amazing to see that close.
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TallDude

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Re: Lightening strikes multiple SoCal beach-goers!
« Reply #10 on: July 27, 2014, 09:18:34 PM »
Carbon fiber is an "excellent" conductor of electricity...

You are 100% right about that. I've been out of the electronic's world for a while, so your comment got me researching the electronic application of carbon fiber. I came across this;

Ultracapacitors are made from woven carbon fiber textile, which has enormous surface area (in the range of a square kilometer of surface area per gram of carbon fiber). This gives ultracapacitors a capacitance literally millions of times greater than that of traditional capacitors. Even Sheldon would find that interesting. My mind is more like a capacitor than a battery.
 
It's not overhead to me!
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JimK

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Re: Lightening strikes multiple SoCal beach-goers!
« Reply #11 on: July 28, 2014, 06:55:07 AM »
SUPdisco
Stay away from those trees in a thunderstorm a friend of mine lost his daughter when ligtning hit the tree they were under. Very sad he's never recovered from it

JimK
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Zooport

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Re: Lightening strikes multiple SoCal beach-goers!
« Reply #12 on: July 28, 2014, 07:10:10 AM »
It doesn't matter if your paddle or board are good conductors or not, lightning doesn't need a good conductor.  So I don't think an aluminum paddle would be much worse than any other material.  You are in danger no matter what. 
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PonoBill

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Re: Lightening strikes multiple SoCal beach-goers!
« Reply #13 on: July 28, 2014, 10:04:09 AM »
Lightning is probably the weirdest and most unpredictable natural phenomenon. The thumb rule is 100 thousand amps at 100 thousand volts, or ten billion watts--per lightning bolt. Once voltage and current gets that high there really isn't anything reasonable about it. People get killed standing in the middle of a crowd where no one else gets more than a tingle. I got hit by a flying, burning pinecone one time on a motorcycle ride. A tree got blasted a few hundred feet away from me and blew to smithereens. I was glad it was just a pinecone. Crazy thing to actually see.
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Caribsurf

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Re: Lightening strikes multiple SoCal beach-goers!
« Reply #14 on: July 28, 2014, 10:39:22 AM »
It was not a good day to be on a  Venice Beach yesterday…

in Venice Beach, California the lightning strike, 

in Venice Beach, Florida a small plane made an emergency landing and  hit a guy walking on the beach and killed him.

« Last Edit: July 28, 2014, 10:51:37 AM by Caribsurf »
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