Close Lightning Strike
Taken by Peter Lowenstein on November 14, 2016 @
Mutare, Zimbabwe
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Details:
On 14 November the drought which has affected Mutare for the past few months was broken by a violent afternoon thunderstorm with hail and 90 millimeters of torrential rain which persisted into the night. At 15.15 LT there was a very close lightning bolt which struck a pole which had just one week earlier been installed by the national telephone company to bring a fiber internet connection to my home. The pole is situated on the opposite side of the road less than 50 meters from the front of the house. The internet connection was unaffected by the strike but induced high voltages damaged the LNB in my rooftop satellite TV dish and connected decoder."
The accompanying animated gif shows the brief but intense lightning flash descending towards the pole which is just below the field of view. It was accompanied by a sharp click of static electricity and almost immediately afterwards by a very loud report which could be felt and shook the house. This was followed by a deep rumbling sound which persisted for almost twenty seconds. An electromagnetic pulse was generated which was strong enough to affect the electronics in the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ10 being used to film the storm and produced strange bright histogram shaped patterns in the two frames which captured the strike. The frame in which the actual strike is visible has been processed to produce a copy in which the interference has been removed.
A video of the strike with spectacular sound has been posted at https://youtu.be/Fo1mWhhknUk
Photographer's website:
No URL provided.
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