Topic: Where Lightning Strikes More Than Twice

[sam]

Lightning is one of Mother Nature's double-edged swords; it is beautiful to watch as it lights up the sky, but it is dangerous when it hits the ground at a scorching 50,000 degrees F and brings with it a jolt of 100 million electric volts.

http://www.physorg.com/news196366436.html

[Clive]

Beautiful Sam.   

[Rik]

If scary.

[Simon]

I love storms.  As long as I'm inside!

[Rik]

And the lightning is striking a mile or two away...

[Simon]

That helps. 

[Rik]

I've seen a chimney blown off the side of a house by a direct strike. It reminds you that nature is powerful.

[Simon]

I didn't actually witness it, but one of our local pubs was destroyed by a fire caused by a lightning strike.

[Rik]

It's scary stuff, like watching storms peel the roof off a building.

[Simon]

Indeed.   The 1987 hurricane hit us hard down here in the south east.  Astonishingly, I slept right through it, but the devastation witnessed the following morning was incredible.

[Rik]

Nature has a habit of reminding us who's in charge.

[Simon]

I was living in a flat six floors up at the time, and that was with shops and a car park below, so it was quite high.  On the night of the hurricane, I do remember briefly waking, and feeling the building move, but didn't wake fully enough to realise what was actually occurring.  The following morning, the whole town was cut off with fallen trees blocking all routes in and out, and there was a weird quietness about the place.  Scary stuff.

[Rik]

I know what you mean. We had a fence take off in the late 80s, it was unbelievable to watch. Then there was the earthquake...

[Simon]

Are you sure that wasn't a result of one of Sue's curries? 

[Rik]

We didn't use to eat curry back then.