The Thunder Rolls Free

A great deal has yet to be learned about aviation in relation to thunderstorms. To this end, the Army Air Forces this summer are conducting intensive tests in the area around Orlando, Florida, using ten especially equipped P-61 "Black Widow" night fighter planes. In addition to collecting instrumental and photographic observations relating to cloud forms, cloud height, agitations, precipitation, lightning and temperatures, the planes also will test radar equipment for use in weather scouting. Lightning kills about five hundred people and injures some 1,800 a year in the United States—small figures in comparison to the annual highway accident toll.

It does about $12,000,000 worth of damage to farm buildings, causes more than half of all oil tank fires, and about 12,000 (or seven per cent of all) forest fires a year. Although no one can tell when or where lightning will strike, there are certain places that are safer than others during a thunderstorm. These are: inside buildings, the bigger the better; inside a closed automobile with a steel body; in the center of a room; in a valley or a dense wood. Places to avoid are: golf courses, beaches or open spaces; hilltops, attics, under isolated trees, poles or masts; exposed machinery such as a tractor; wire fences and metal objects, stoves, pipes, chimneys and fireplaces. Most fire losses from lightning occur in rural regions where fire-fighting equipment is not readily obtainable, and where buildings are more isolated. In cities each building seems to help protect its neighbors, while skyscrapers extend their protection over considerable areas.

As for the value of properly installed lightning rods—the United States Bureau of Standards estimates that the chances of an un-rodded farm building being struck by lightning are fifty-seven times greater than that of a rodded building. But considering the vast number of thunderstorms that rage across the face of the earth each year, lightning does comparatively little damage. On the credit side of the ledger is a considerable contribution, for lightning liberates vast quantities of nitrogen compounds from the air and makes them available as fertilizer in the soil. It is estimated that some 100,000,000 tons of nitrogen compounds are released each year by lightning.

Man has learned many things about thunder and lightning. He has taken them from the realm of the gods and given them to the electrician and the meteorologist. He has estimated the good and harm they do annually. He has learned, in a measure, how to protect himself and his possessions from them. But still the lightning flashes and the thunder rolls free and unharnessed by mankind. And in this latter fact can be found slim comfort for astraphobia and keraunophobia sufferers.

By: davidbunch

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