In an instant, one person caught a lightning strike on video that annihilated a wooden pole, showing the awesome power of nature within a few seconds.
The Nature Is Metal Instagram account posted two versions of the strike. One with a metal soundtrack and the other not.
The original YouTube clip came from Chicago resident Anja Englert. Englert captured this on video while driving through a thunderstorm on July 24, 2016.
Englert or another car passenger says, “Holey Moley” right after the strike.
Holey Moley is right. The natural phenomenon is simply shocking.
Over 17,000 Instagram fans liked the post.
Lightning Strike Gets A Breakdown
Nature Is Metal goes on to talk about how lightning strikes affect wood.
The Instagram post contrasts lightning hitting wood versus a human.
“Wood is a terrible conductor of current, which means that the electricity from a lightning strike or an electrical wire has a hard time flowing though it.”
The post discusses how the massive burst of current inside the strike can turn the wood into a bunch of toothpicks.
Finally, the Instagram account delves into the real reason why humans don’t explode into millions of pieces when hit by lightning. We’re better conductors of electricity.
“In other words, unlike the pole, we offer much less resistance to the huge electrical assault, which generates much less heat and allows for a better rate of survival.”
So, kids, when there’s a storm in the area, find shelter. And, based on the video, the tree’s not the safest place to be.
Bad News For California
Rain usually is a welcomed sight for California residents. But after an intense wildfire season, CNN reported more than 1,100 lightning strikes hit the Golden State.
The National Weather Service in San Francisco recorded many strikes picked up around 110 cloud-to-ground strikes in the Bay Area. The weather service could not count the number of cloud-to-cloud flashes.
Many of the storms were dry thunderstorms. The lightning strikes, however, would hit and could cause a fire without any rain resistance. This natural phenomenon means that rain droplets would fall but would evaporate when they hit the ground.
California Fire officials said firefighters had to leave the Caldor Fire area and fight multiple lightning fires in the El Dorado County area.
The Dixie and Caldor fires are still going strong. The former is only 59 percent contained, with 590,951 acres burned. The latter is just 53 percent under control (218,549 burned acres).
Late Thursday, fire officials in that area did get some help from the rain.
Another more minor fire, the Bridge fire, was 75 percent contained Friday morning.
According to Cal Fire officials, Caldor fire area winds would likely pick up on Friday.
If you’re ever curious about lightning strikes in your area, check out lightningmaps.org.
