Lightning Really Does Strike More Than Twice

NASA-funded scientists have recently learned that cloud-to-ground lightning frequently strikes the ground in two or more places and that the chances of being struck are about 45 percent higher than what people commonly assume.

Recently, William C. Valine and E. Philip Krider in the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona, co-authors of the study, took to the field using video and other technology to study lightning, which is one of the biggest weather-related killers in the United States, superseded only by extreme heat and flooding.

They recorded 386 cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning flashes on videotape during the summer of 1997 in Tucson, Arizona. They found that within their sample of 386 flashes, 136 flashes (35 percent) struck the ground in two or more places that were separated by tens of meters (yards) or more. There were a total of 558 different strike points; therefore, on average, each cloud-to-ground flash struck the ground in 1.45 places.

For the complete article on the lightning study, go to: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2003/0107lightning.html