From BEATYWJ@grtpa01.grt.ch.etn.com Fri Aug 16 18:33:45 1996
Date: 19 APR 96 18:55:08 EDT
From: BEATYWJ@grtpa01.grt.ch.etn.com
To: billb@eskimo.com
Subject: FW: 15 sec lightning strike



 ----------
From: Beaty, William J
To: 'UW: Dr. R. Holzworth'
Subject: 15 sec lightning strike
Date: Thursday, April 18, 1996 1:38PM


Question about an anecdotal lightning report.


At a recent science hobby group meeting, Robert Dinse (nanook@eskimo.com)
told me of a peculiar event he witnessed several years ago.  I'm wondering
how rare this is, and whether it might have a connection with sprites/jets
phenomena.


He was driving in the Seattle area during a thunderstorm when one lightning
flash lasted an abnormally long time.  *Unbelievably* long time, he had time 

to pull off the road and get out of his car!  I think he said he couldn't 
see
the channel through the clouds.  He says that towards the end of the event
the light became deep red before going dark.  The whole thing was maybe 
15sec
duration.


I could see that in a large storm, the upper processes of a ground
strike might keep "exploring" a huge area of charge within a cloud.
But for 15 seconds?

Wouldn't it make more sense that a ground strike managed to connect
to a vertical discharge event in the ionosphere?  What would be the
consequences of the initiation of a ground/ionosphere channel?
Do you think that such an event would only last a fraction of a minute,
maybe after draining the excess charge off a huge patch of "sky?"

And what might be the origin of the red color?

If this really was a ground strike, the results at the earth end
of the channel would have been a bit interesting to observe!



Bill "Bellingham ball-lightning hoax" Beaty


**********************************************************************
William J. Beaty                              DESIGN ENGINEER
beatywj@ch.etn.com                            INDUSTRIAL PHOTOCONTROLS
EATON/CUTLER-HAMMER  Everett, WA 206-353-0900


Oops, another one: Bill R (robi@halcyon.com) tells of witnessing as a child
a "hot" long-duration strike to the flagpole at school in Louisiana.  It
collapsed, molton.  Might you have encountered such a story before?  I don't
think his story was an exaggeration.