Lightning! takes you on a high voltage trip into the most electrically charged weather in the world culminating in a dazzling lightning show set to music that rivals the most extraordinary fireworks display. The program also visits with some of lightning's tragic victims who though they were out of harm's way.
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00:00Tonight on NOVA, lightning, hot, powerful, and deadly.
00:09No one knows what causes it or where it will strike next.
00:15Now scientists race to capture the elusive lightning bolt.
00:19Yes!
00:21NBC weatherman Al Roker narrates an unprecedented look at lightning.
00:30Major funding for NOVA is provided by the Park Foundation, dedicated to education and quality television.
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01:14This program is funded in part by Northwestern Mutual Life, which has been protecting families and businesses for generations.
01:25Have you heard from The Quiet Company?
01:27Northwestern Mutual Life.
01:29And by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.
01:35Lightning is one of nature's most magnificent displays.
01:55Every minute, 6,000 bolts strike the Earth.
02:02Each one is unpredictable and dangerous.
02:08Lightning kills more people than tornadoes and hurricanes put together.
02:12And it wipes out power to entire cities.
02:21Now, a team of scientists fights back.
02:25Let's go!
02:26They prepare to launch a research balloon into the heart of a violent storm.
02:33This is the summer thunderstorm season.
02:35And these scientists are one of several teams gathered around the country
02:40who dare to get close enough to lightning to unravel its mysteries.
02:44Okay, go back inside.
02:45Wind, hail, and ice can ruin the experiment at any moment.
02:52And the summer storm season passes quickly.
02:55Now, take the humicap off.
02:58Go that way.
02:59Go that way.
02:59The scientists have a brief moment of opportunity,
03:02and they know the stakes are high.
03:06We understand when we're close to a lightning flash
03:09that this thing is bigger than us.
03:11There are things bigger than us, and lightning is a good example.
03:15We're not in control with lightning.
03:24Every year in the United States, lightning strikes 1,000 people.
03:32It happened to two hunters in California.
03:36We got two guys that were struck by lightning, but it hit the tree.
03:40They were standing fairly close to a tree.
03:42They're both conscious when we got here, but they both fought.
03:47Looks like the lightning started up here.
03:50Probably bounced from the tree to his head.
03:52Went all the way down his body.
03:53You can see where it shredded his pants.
03:56It's just totally shredded these pants.
03:58You can see this line of the lightning going down.
04:01There's the electricity going down his foot, inside his foot.
04:05Then looks like it went out through his toe, through the boot.
04:09Remember anything about it?
04:10Uh, it scared the hell out of me.
04:18So terrifying is the spectacle of lightning.
04:21People living long ago turned to superstition to control it.
04:25Church bells were rung to drive away the evil spirits that caused the fire in the sky.
04:35Lightning has been likened in, in, uh, centuries ago to an electric fire that used to pour out of the clouds.
04:41And, actually, until Benjamin Franklin demonstrated that lightning was, in fact, the same thing or made of the same kinds of things that make up static charges that we pick up walking across a rug, people actually thought it was fire.
04:57In one of history's most famous experiments, Benjamin Franklin used a wire on top of a kite to attract the mysterious force of lightning.
05:06That force traveled down a wet string to a key.
05:11When sparks jumped from the key to Franklin's knuckles, Franklin proved that lightning is electricity, not fire.
05:20Empire State Building.
05:23Franklin's experiment set the stage for a strange new breed of scientist, lightning chasers.
05:29And in the 1930s and 40s, they made use of a famous landmark instead of a kite.
05:36Steel-framed flyers of Manhattan serve as myriad lightning rods.
05:42Contrary to popular belief, lightning does strike twice.
05:46It hits the Empire State Building more than 20 times a year.
05:49In historic studies there, scientists recorded lightning as never before, revealing the surprising anatomy of a lightning bolt.
05:57It's three to four miles long, but only an inch in diameter.
06:01It's nearly five times hotter than the surface of the sun.
06:05And what appears as a single flash is really more complicated.
06:11A typical flash begins when electrons from a storm zigzag downward.
06:17As this negative charge nears the Earth, positive charge rises up.
06:22When a channel is complete, electrons rush to the ground, causing the familiar flash of lightning and the shockwave of thunder.
06:31It happens too quickly for our eyes to see, but the flash actually travels up, not down.
06:41If the electrical energy of lightning could be harnessed, a single flash could power a 100-watt light bulb for more than three months.
06:51But as those who run electric power systems know, lightning is more likely to turn off the lights.
07:00One notorious and catastrophic lightning blackout occurred in New York City on July 14, 1977.
07:08Chief systems operator for Con Ed was Charles Durkin.
07:12I remember very clearly my youngest child looking at the sky, maybe about 8.15 or so, and wanting to know what was wrong with the sky.
07:20The lightning was so intense.
07:21At 8.37 p.m., lightning knocked out two major transmission lines north of the city.
07:29The disruption caused a major power plant to automatically cease operation, or trip off.
07:3618 minutes later, lightning tripped off two more lines, one carrying energy from Canada.
07:43New York City had lost 65 percent of its ability to import power.
07:47The power failure spread when other vital connections became seriously overloaded.
08:07At the end of the line, an entire city was plunged into darkness.
08:17To some, the New York blackout was a magic moment.
08:26Without television or air conditioning, whoever could make it out went out.
08:31But the blackout also had serious consequences, including extensive property damage.
08:42It took 25 hours to reactivate the system.
08:47The logistics of doing it were immense.
08:50I never had realized what we'd have to do to do to get the system back, to get oil systems running,
08:56to get circuit breakers prepared to be restored, to get the proper generation in the proper areas.
09:03I don't think any of us ever felt that we would have been tested the way we were tested that day.
09:10Lightning remains a headache for power companies trying to provide an uninterrupted flow of electricity.
09:15Today, when a storm approaches, New York City generates power close to home instead of relying on long transmission lines exposed to lightning.
09:27But lightning still causes up to a third of all power cuts on the East Coast.
09:33And in other parts of the country, the figure is even higher.
09:37Range control.
09:38This is RTL test site requesting permission to enter net.
09:41Over.
09:42In Florida, the lightning capital of North America, the Electric Power Research Institute has assembled a team of lightning hunters.
09:50Range control.
09:51This is RTL test site acknowledging permission to enter net at 1454 hours.
09:55Their mission, purposely attract lightning to discover why modern power systems are still so vulnerable.
10:02Our current status is we're looking at thunderstorm activity up near Jacksonville and also starting to spread.
10:08It's moved in significantly since before.
10:09The Florida team has built a miniature version of a town's electrical system, including overhead power lines and underground cables.
10:18At the end of the line is the average American customer.
10:22Chief of operations is Phil Barker, an engineer with Power Technologies Incorporated.
10:27He has a hunch that lightning sneaks into power systems through an unexpected path, buried power cables.
10:35You know the old saying, out of sight, out of mind?
10:38A lot of people have thought that because underground cables are buried in the ground and they're not up in the air like an overhead power line,
10:45that there shouldn't be much of a problem with lightning and underground cables.
10:48But, in fact, underground cable systems are affected by lightning significantly.
10:53In the spirit of Ben Franklin's research, the team plays a dangerous game.
11:00Using rockets instead of a kite, they deliberately attract lightning to strike their simulated town.
11:08The rockets climb 4,000 feet into thunderclouds.
11:14A thin wire connects the tip of the rocket to the ground, providing a perfect path for lightning bolts.
11:20This is the bait.
11:24Now all they need is a storm.
11:27Like other scientists gathered around the country for the summer,
11:30Barker and his team have only a brief window to test their ideas about lightning.
11:35They must make every storm count.
11:38How's it look?
11:40Looks better. It's coming.
11:4220 kilometers about. It's pretty good.
11:44What we're looking at here is a large area of thunderstorms off the coast.
11:51And given the weather forecast, it looks like something may build up today.
11:55What do you think about that?
11:56Do you think it's a possibility?
11:58We didn't see.
11:59Yes.
11:59To stay on top of approaching storms, the team monitors the lightning detection network.
12:08The network records nearly every bolt that hits the ground throughout the United States.
12:13Each symbol represents a separate flash.
12:17Add the total number of flashes in a year, and this is how the map looks.
12:21Blue and green areas see few lightning flashes.
12:25Brown and yellow areas see more.
12:27The red and orange areas of Florida see the most.
12:37It's the height of lightning season in northern Florida,
12:40and a storm approaches the research camp.
12:44Ranch control, this is RTL test site.
12:46We'll keep you posted on our first rocket launch.
12:50Ranch control, this is RTL test site.
12:52Out.
12:53The wind's going to probably pick up in another five to ten days.
12:55Steve and Nat and Phil Barker assume their post in the launch control trailer.
13:00This is a hefty, hefty test site.
13:04Assuming this is launch control, we see an area of turbulence almost on the ground.
13:11It's a very strong thunderstorm.
13:13Roger, keep us posted on anything that you see that looks like it might be a tornado.
13:17As the storm moves overhead, the team watches for the perfect moment to launch a rocket,
13:29just when the thundercloud is ready to burst with lightning.
13:32A storm cloud is like a giant battery with layers of opposite charge.
13:39When electrical charge builds, opposites attract.
13:43Negatively charged electrons move toward positive charge in the top of the cloud or the ground below.
13:50This is lightning, and it discharges the electric field or force between charged particles.
13:56But the electric field builds quickly again.
13:59The field is suddenly starting to climb very, very negative right here.
14:03The trick for the rocket launchers is to find the brief window of time after electric charge builds,
14:10but before a natural lightning strike discharges it.
14:13A difference of a split second could ruin the experiment.
14:16When the voltmeter reads minus 6.50, the time will be right to launch.
14:34It's too bad that thing.
14:36They're varying between about 1 kV negative and 5 kV, wildly fluctuating.
14:42While Barker and Nat monitor the electric field,
14:45Bruno Bader and Louis Barrett take charge of firing the rocket.
14:50They will call out a 2-second warning.
14:53Stand by, we're at 5 kV and rise.
14:56Anybody?
14:585.76 kV, we're almost there.
15:00Here we go.
15:01Here we go.
15:01This is going to be a 1.
15:032 seconds to launch.
15:042 seconds to go.
15:051 second.
15:06Fire.
15:07Good launch, but no lightning.
15:10We're still high, though.
15:13We're still at 5.
15:17No trigger.
15:18The launchers missed their window.
15:21The electric charge was high, but a natural lightning bolt struck just before the rocket left the pan.
15:28Stand by.
15:29Here we may be going any second now.
15:31I'll keep you posted.
15:322.25.
15:33Stand by, Suni.
15:346 kV.
15:35We're almost there.
15:36Standing by.
15:37Good.
15:382 seconds.
15:412 seconds.
15:422 seconds.
15:425.
15:43Fire.
15:45Fire.
15:46Little one.
15:47We didn't even trigger it.
15:48Little one.
15:49It looked good, but it wasn't really lightning.
15:51That was only a wire burn.
15:53We'll try to do it again.
15:54Over.
15:55It's just a low current discharge where it melted the wire.
15:57We didn't quite get a big lightning discharge.
15:59Hit me at the light.
16:00Special photography shows a burning wire, but it also shows what the rocket launchers are really
16:09after, the high-powered strokes of lightning on the right.
16:14It's rebuilding quickly.
16:16Suni, stand by.
16:172.2, 6.4.
16:182 seconds to watch.
16:206.7.
16:215.
16:215.
16:25But this, too, is only a wire burn.
16:28You're triggering wimpy strikes right now.
16:31No trigger.
16:32In the end, the storm that approached with so much vigor split around the test site.
16:37The most active part moved east, leaving the rocket launchers with an unsuccessful day of
16:43experiments.
16:45Range control.
16:46This is RTL test site.
16:47Acknowledged cold status at 1, 9, 2, 7 hours.
16:52Over.
16:53RTL test site.
16:54Range control.
16:55One circuit.
16:55Copy.
16:57It's very frustrating because the way I look at it is the clock is ticking and we're running
17:03out of time to get the data that we need to get to complete the experiment.
17:07Two weeks will pass before the rocket launchers see the best storm of the summer.
17:19In the southwest, also a lightning hot spot, a CU and Oz license plate emerges for the storm
17:25season.
17:28Its owner is another lightning stalker.
17:31He's Warren Fadley, a full-time storm photographer, one of the few in the world.
17:38Each one of these photographs have something really unique about them.
17:49There's always something really unusual that happened when I was taking them.
17:52Matter of fact, just a few minutes after I took this photograph, I was going down the
17:56road to get another angle on it.
17:58When the road suddenly ended, someone had knocked down the dead end sign.
18:03And the next thing I know, I was literally flying through the air in the car.
18:06I didn't know where I was going and crashed into, fortunately, into a dry riverbed.
18:10This shot I call the enlightenment.
18:12It's one of my favorite all-time lightning shots.
18:15The unique thing about it is you don't have a thunderstorm with the lightning coming out
18:20of the sides of it very often.
18:23This photograph, I've been told, is one of, if not the closest photograph ever taken of
18:30lightning hitting something in the United States.
18:32I like this background because of the tanks.
18:36So I thought, oh, I'll set up and get some lightning behind them.
18:39I never, ever expected that to hit.
18:42In an ideal year, a storm develops in the vicinity of Fadley's Tucson home almost every evening.
18:51The question is, where?
18:53Weather radar indicated thunderstorms in progress and developing in southeastern Santa Cruz and
18:58southern Cochise counties.
19:04This is the time of day, maybe an hour, an hour and a half before sunset, when you make
19:10the final decision which storm you're going to actually go to and shoot.
19:14And it's really, once you get to a storm later, you're fine.
19:18But this is really the nerve-wracking part right now because you can go out 10 or 20 miles
19:22towards one storm and it can fizzle out and the great storm will be back in the opposite
19:25direction.
19:26So right now there's two or three fairly decent storms going up, a lot better than what I thought
19:34we would have today, right here straight ahead in the west, there's one cloud going up that
19:39already has some rain falling.
19:41And one of the things I look for out here is any rainfall.
19:43Once a cloud goes up and the downdraft starts, that is usually a signal that you're going to
19:49have lightning.
19:50Not all the time, but out here that's just one of the things I look for.
19:54Once Fadley zeroes in on a potential thundercloud, he works on his position.
20:00That almost looks like there's actually a storm out there with an anvil on it.
20:06That's looking good too over there.
20:10Yeah, it looks perfect right there.
20:13As a matter of fact, I think I'm going to pull over here and take a look because there's
20:17storms on both sides here that look good.
20:20Fadley's first law of the chase, if you're in the rain, you're too close.
20:28Better to be a few miles away and use a telephoto lens to capture the most perfect lightning
20:34specimen.
20:36Probably the most amazing thing about lightning after all these years of shooting it and
20:40watching many a storm is that you never really lose your interest in it.
20:43But every time I see a good storm and every time I see a fantastic lightning bolt, it's
20:47still really, you know, I still really get excited about it.
20:50It's all right.
20:51It's all right.
20:51It's all right.
20:52It's all right.
20:52Uh, you're too soon.
20:52Yeah.
20:53Oh, my God.
21:23There's a cell coming in from the west, which is sheared out over the Kiva and Blue Hangar.
21:45Elsewhere in the southwest, on a mountain in New Mexico, is Langmuir Lab.
21:50Here, another rocket launcher prepares to trigger his own bolts of lightning.
21:55Like the Florida team, Dan Davis has set up camp for the summer storm season.
22:00But his mission is pure science.
22:03If he can get lightning to travel down a wire, all the way from a cloud to this bucket, the bolt may create a new form of carbon.
22:11For centuries, chemists only knew two forms of pure carbon, diamond and graphite.
22:19Then a rare third form was discovered.
22:22And some think it's made when lightning hits the sand and soil of the desert.
22:28Davis will be the first to test this theory.
22:31Mostly, though, he's here for the chase.
22:33I think lightning fascinates everyone, the Greeks, the Hindus.
22:38Everyone has a storm god that they feared or worshipped with very high reverence.
22:44And I think it's just the sheer power.
22:46It's like tornadoes or tsunamis or hurricanes.
22:48It's just a personification of the intensity and the chaos and the unpredictability of nature.
22:58Half a mile away on the same mountain, another group of lightning chasers prepares for the afternoon storm.
23:04And that's a real balloon popper.
23:06If we don't get it out.
23:08This group chases lightning with balloons.
23:11Has anybody done helium before?
23:13Okay, it's on.
23:13I think we're ready to fly.
23:19We can take the balloon to right in the very front of the hangar and launch that way.
23:25We'll move farther away, but the wind's from that way right now.
23:30Due south, it's been from the south all along.
23:32Okay, yesterday when I released the pilot balloon and the balloon and that same thing,
23:36it went right up, went into the hangar wall.
23:39Did that as soon as it...
23:40Don't get a little farther away.
23:40Yeah.
23:40Special instruments that will be attached to the balloon are placed in launch position.
23:47One will measure raindrops and hail.
23:48Need me to hold that for you?
23:49Yep.
23:50Until we lock in, I don't want to go hook it on.
23:52Okay, right.
23:53Another will transmit radio waves to reveal the balloon's location.
23:58A third will measure electric fields.
24:00Make sure the launch reel is free there.
24:02These will be the eyes for the scientists who are looking for the holy grail of lightning.
24:07The answer to the biggest mystery of all, what causes lightning?
24:13Scientists know that thunderstorms are like big batteries with layers of opposite charge.
24:18But there's debate about what causes the layers to form.
24:21One theory says, rising ice crystals collide with falling hail, forming charged particles that move into separate areas of the cloud.
24:31Another theory says, violent updrafts and downdrafts separate charged particles that naturally exist in the atmosphere.
24:39We know a lot about the lightning flash once it gets going, but what makes it start?
24:45The air, the same air that we breathe that's up inside this cloud, is an insulator.
24:51And by that, I mean that it doesn't want electricity to conduct through it.
24:55Lightning is obviously electricity conducting through the air.
24:59So somewhere between this insulator and the lightning flash, it has to get started.
25:04And I think that we do not really understand how it gets started.
25:09We don't know how you get a big enough electric field.
25:14How do you get it big enough to make the air break down?
25:18Perhaps the balloon team will solve this age-old mystery.
25:21But first, they must time their launch perfectly.
25:25Okay, yeah, everybody, they didn't need it out of your way to help.
25:28When we get ready to launch a balloon, there's a lot of things that happen in a hurry.
25:35We've all got some job to do, and we better do it right,
25:38or we're going to miss the opportunity, the little short window of getting our balloon launched
25:43and getting up into the storms to make the measurements we need to make.
25:46Let's go.
25:49Rain.
25:49Small hail?
25:50Yes, ice.
25:51It's time to get going here.
25:53It's moving, moving, moving.
25:55It's back away from the sun.
25:56There are lots of things that happen in a hurry with Mother Nature.
25:59The wind can change, and all of a sudden, you can't let your balloon go because you'll crash it.
26:04You've got to worry about where is the lightning, how close is it,
26:07what are the safety issues here, because you don't want to be reckless.
26:11You want to live to come back another day.
26:15Okay, Kyle.
26:16Same job as before.
26:18Turn it on.
26:19Go ahead and turn it on.
26:20All right, back up slowly.
26:22Back up slowly.
26:24Parachute is on.
26:24Double check secure.
26:25Move that way a little bit.
26:27Grip strips ready to go.
26:28We're ready here.
26:29All right, are you ready, Monty?
26:31Don't we want this left hand down?
26:33Drop this, lower the sond in your left hand.
26:36Sond man!
26:37Bart!
26:38Lower it down.
26:40Right hand only.
26:41Let go with your left hand.
26:43You got it.
26:44Great.
26:47Okay.
26:48All right.
26:48I'm ready if y'all are.
26:49Back up.
26:50Are you still happy with the wind?
26:51Yeah.
26:52The location?
26:52Yeah.
26:53Stand by.
26:53Let me get it.
26:59All right.
27:00Good launch.
27:00Let's go.
27:02Get the launch tube in.
27:05Headed toward the cloud.
27:07Good.
27:07The balloon team scrambles to their tracking station.
27:11Back up the mountain, the rocket launchers wait in a lightning-safe underground bunker.
27:16It's called the Kiva, named for ceremonial rooms built by Native Americans.
27:22We've been getting lightning in the near proximity, so we might have some luck yet.
27:26Dan Davis and Cliff Murray wait for the electric fields outside to rise.
27:30The threshold for triggering here is 15 kilovolts per meter.
27:3515 kV per meter would really be nice, Cliff.
27:37Yeah, but I don't think, see, I think you can't always wait on that, Dan.
27:40Yeah.
27:41Not all storms do that.
27:42I know.
27:42It's just that every other trigger we've had, I mean, that we've, every other failure we've
27:47had has been below 15 kV per meter, so I'm kind of, well, it better be a little aggressive.
27:53Only the weak part of the storm has reached the Kiva.
27:57If they launch and there's no trigger, it means hours of back-breaking work to reel in
28:02the rocket.
28:03Going up to about six to seven kilovolts.
28:05I'll bring in the rocket if you don't wait till 15.
28:11Okay, Cliff.
28:12But, you know, it's...
28:14What's the threshold at which you'll still reel in the rocket?
28:17Okay, we're just hanging around 11.
28:19It's tempting, but in the end, the team agrees not to launch.
28:24Watch for in-clouds, somebody please.
28:27Back at the hangar, the balloon team is having better luck.
28:31What was the time it got away?
28:3213.
28:33Dodging hail and ice, the balloon is functioning perfectly, beaming back data which the scientists
28:39decode in real time.
28:41How are you looking, Bob?
28:43How are you looking, Bob?
28:43Are you on here?
28:44Are you on here?
28:45Are you on here?
28:45Are you on here?
28:47I'll meet him.
28:4730 miles away in Socorro, New Mexico, a special radar has a line-of-sight view on the balloon.
28:55You should be on the western edge of the storm and extend up into the anvil about six kilometers
29:01above you.
29:02Paul Crable stays in radio communication with the balloon hangar.
29:08His radar scopes show that the balloon is headed straight for the anvil, or flattened upper
29:13part of the cloud.
29:14The anvil of the storm is right there, actually standing out this way, blowing out that way
29:20from the storm.
29:20The balloon team had hoped to launch into the center of the storm cloud, the most active
29:26and mysterious part.
29:28Instead, they enter the anvil, thought to be much less active.
29:32I show the field going up, is that correct?
29:35The field is negative now, about 25 miles per meter.
29:40But the team quickly discovers an unexpected surprise.
29:44As the balloon journeys through the anvil, it records an extraordinary amount of electrical
29:49activity, not what anyone expected.
29:52All right, we are into high electrification in the anvil now.
29:55Still getting a few precipitation particles through the instrument.
29:58Looks like we're headed back to another layer of charge.
30:01While this detailed look at an anvil won't solve the age-old debate about what creates
30:06layers of electrical charge, the data will prove to be an unexpected treasure.
30:11Boy, we are climbing again, aren't we, Mary Beth?
30:14I think it's important for us to understand the structure of thunderstorms.
30:19And that's all the structure, including the electricity.
30:25If you want to forecast, if you want to warn, if you want to protect, you've got to have
30:30the basic understanding.
30:37Lightning kills up to 200 people every year.
30:40At this U.S. Open in 1991, lightning struck six spectators huddled under a tree.
30:51One victim died.
30:54For golf legend Lee Trevino, the tragedy was all too familiar.
30:58At a tournament in 1975, he himself was hit by lightning.
31:03Now the sensation that I got was I knew that something was wrong.
31:09Because it just didn't go pow and it was over, you know.
31:12I felt it.
31:13And I started shaking.
31:15And then I started shaking.
31:16The next thing I knew, I started hearing a ringing sound in my ear like a ball peen hammer
31:21popping.
31:22And it's going, and then all of a sudden, the next thing I know, as I look at my feet,
31:28now they're up in the air.
31:30Now I'm off the ground about this high.
31:34And it's gotten me all stretched out.
31:36And at the time, I guess it stops your heartbeat and I'm gasping for air.
31:41I'm sitting there, I'm going, and the next thing I knew is I woke up and I was all doubled
31:48up.
31:48My left arm was under my body and there were people standing on the green holding towels
31:53over me because it was pouring rain and the ambulance was over by the green.
31:59Outdoor sports and lightning are a dangerous mix.
32:03One of the largest categories of lightning deaths comprises victims who seek refuge under
32:08trees as spectators often do when stranded in a storm.
32:16The same tragedy unfolds again and again.
32:19It happened at St. Albans, a school for boys in Washington, D.C.
32:26May 17, 1991 began as a banner day for the school.
32:32St. Albans had a shot at beating its arch rival Landon in the final lacrosse game of the season.
32:38More than a thousand parents and students gathered.
32:45No one expected that they would be in danger.
32:47That afternoon of May 17th was a very, very warm, humid day.
32:54Our son Noah had left a message at my office that he wanted to know if it was all right
33:00if he went to the lacrosse game.
33:02And they said, of course it was all right, because what would a parent want more than
33:06to have their teenage son spend the afternoon at a sporting event for their school?
33:12Land, yes, we want!
33:14Land, yes, we want!
33:15Land, yes, we want!
33:17Land, yes, we want!
33:19Land, yes, we want!
33:21The sky was clear over the field when the game began, but a thunderstorm was brewing to the West.
33:26As the second quarter started, the storm moved in, darkening the sky quickly.
33:34Hundreds of spectators left the field to seek shelter.
33:38With hopes that the game could resume, a rain delay was called, a controversial decision.
33:44If the game had been cancelled, we probably would have left, but it was just postponed,
33:49so we decided to stay around.
33:51And what's typical with 15-year-old boys, they don't stand inside with all the mommies
33:56and daddies and little kids.
33:58They stood outside, right outside the pavilion.
34:02Unfortunately there was a tree, also, right outside the pavilion.
34:09All of a sudden there was a loud explosion and a big orange flash, and after that I just
34:18remember being sent back on the ground and just lying there and not being able to feel
34:25my legs and not knowing exactly what had happened.
34:31Lightning had struck this tree, moving down the trunk and radiating out along the ground.
34:38Those who escaped the strike turned away to shield themselves from flying bark.
34:43When they turned back, they witnessed a living nightmare.
34:48It was horrifying.
34:50I've never seen anything like it.
34:53There were bodies splayed out in a fan shape.
34:56There were 12 people that were hit and many of them were unconscious.
35:01And I ran down the stairs and jumped on the first body I came to to try to revive him.
35:09That's when all the pandemonium broke out.
35:10I mean, the screaming and the yelling and the crying and call 911, who knows CPR.
35:17My dad and my mom rushed down to me and my mom was holding my little brother and he was
35:21crying.
35:22And I asked my dad, am I ever going to be able to walk again?
35:26He didn't know.
35:28Tal Alter would fully recover.
35:31Like most victims, he was hit indirectly.
35:35But one had been leaning against the tree.
35:39He was 15-year-old Noah Eig.
35:42We took forever to get over to Georgetown Hospital and I got there and I asked, you know, I said
35:51I wanted to see Noah Eig in the emergency room.
35:54I heard my name being called and I turned around and I walked towards the desk and I knew he was
36:02dead.
36:03And I do not know why I did.
36:04I just, I just screamed.
36:06I said, oh my God.
36:08Oh my God.
36:09What happened at St. Albans underscores the lack of understanding about basic lightning
36:20do's and don'ts.
36:23Lightning usually seeks a path of least resistance to the ground.
36:26An isolated tree can provide such a path.
36:30Any object that projects above the surrounding landscape should be avoided.
36:35When a strike is imminent, skin gets prickly, hair on the body rises.
36:40Crouch down on the balls of your feet to minimize contact with the ground.
36:46Cars are fairly safe, but not because of the rubber tires.
36:50The metal shell conducts lightning around the frame and away from passengers.
36:56At home, don't touch wires or anything else connected with the outdoors.
37:01This includes plumbing, so don't take a bath or wash dishes.
37:06And don't talk on the telephone.
37:08You can still be struck by lightning indoors.
37:11Telephones are the leading source of indoor deaths due to lightning, and this is one that somebody
37:21was killed talking on.
37:22You can see the arcing here due to the place where the lightning went through the telephone
37:29earpiece into the unfortunate person's ear.
37:32Lightning scientist Martin Eumann shows off his museum of lightning-struck objects at the
37:39University of Florida.
37:41This was struck by lightning in the course of the summer.
37:44Many poles are.
37:45Basically, lightning just blew the tree up from the inside by vaporizing the moisture.
37:51This is a fulgurite.
37:53That's a glassy tube.
37:56You can see it's open, and on the inside, it's very shiny.
37:59They're hollow.
38:00Made by lightning when it goes into certain kinds of sand.
38:03A fulgurite is fused sand, melted by a lightning current.
38:08It's in the shape of a lightning bolt.
38:11At the end of the storm season, Eumann will look for fulgurites at the rocket-triggered lightning
38:16test site.
38:17These screens were used in an experiment in Arizona.
38:22They were placed over the top of a TV tower over the lightning rod, and they give you an
38:26idea about the size of the lightning.
38:27It's only about an inch in diameter.
38:30The charred remains illustrate an important fact about lightning.
38:34It usually strikes the tallest structures, but not always.
38:39Any object, no matter its size, height or composition, can be struck.
38:44Lightning is an unpredictable force of nature.
38:49They're not striped.
38:50They don't have a date.
38:51But they're not bedded.
38:52They're bedded, are they?
38:53No.
38:54This guy can live again to fly another day.
38:56All right.
38:57You wrapped up the line, right?
38:59Yeah.
39:00It wasn't wrapped up.
39:01No.
39:02Look at here.
39:03At Langmuir Lab, students bring in the bounty of their morning hunt.
39:06They recovered the downed instruments and balloon from the recent launch.
39:09Yes.
39:10They are usable.
39:11Yeah.
39:12It's certainly reusable.
39:13Look at there.
39:14There's a hailstone right there.
39:15Or somebody with a .30-30.
39:19Some early deer hunter out for practice.
39:21This was a very interesting season for us at Langmuir Lab.
39:25There it went.
39:28One of the things that we accomplished that I was really very excited about is that
39:33we were able to make some measurements in the anvil.
39:37That's the upper part of the thundercloud that sticks out that often looks like the old
39:41time anvil.
39:42We were able to make measurements up there that we had never made before.
39:46It was a perfect flight.
39:49See, this is coming into the cloud.
39:53End cloud was called out at .5,000 here.
39:58The measurements made by the Langmuir balloon team show that electrified clouds are much more
40:02complex than previously thought.
40:04We entered the anvil somewhere around here, see where the field has gotten larger.
40:11The field is the width, the bigger the width, the greater the width of this curve this way,
40:17vertically, than the bigger the electric field.
40:21Scientists have considered the anvil to be a simple part of a storm, a single layer of
40:25positively charged particles, but this study shows otherwise.
40:29It shows two layers, the two large humps on this graph, and one is negatively charged.
40:36So this is still in the negative charge inside the anvil, which is not really what we expect.
40:42It was positive charge at the base of the anvil, and now it's negative charge inside.
40:47These results also show much higher level of electrical activity than expected.
40:53This has important implications for safety.
40:56An airplane flying through there would probably trigger lightning.
40:59I wouldn't want to be in that plane.
41:02It turns out that the anvil is important to us because we have found that the anvil is highly
41:07electrified even though there may not be natural lightning out there.
41:11Sometimes there is, sometimes there isn't.
41:14Why is that important?
41:15It's important because if you fly your modern jetliner, the question becomes,
41:20can you poke yourself into and through that anvil safely?
41:26Lightning strikes every commercial airplane on average one to two times a year.
41:31It's a frightening experience for travelers, but is it dangerous?
41:39This is actual in-flight footage of a lightning strike to a research plane.
41:44In the 1980s, NASA flew this F-106 through the heart of thunderstorms
41:50to discover the effects of lightning.
41:52...triggers on the biolation.
41:53A loud flash, just to the right.
41:55And we've got one strike to the nose.
41:59Oh, good.
42:00Good, Dallas.
42:00I heard three rumbles down the left line.
42:02Bam, bam, bam.
42:03Lightning is an experience that many pilots have shared, including retired Air Force pilot, Ed Reinecker.
42:10I guess my concern with the strike that I took was an incident that occurred when he had lost a
42:15crew and an aircraft due to a lightning strike.
42:18The accident report revealed that the lightning caused a nose-down,
42:24uncommanded control, which started the aircraft towards the ground in an altitude at which,
42:29unfortunately, the ejection was not successful, and the two crew members died.
42:32Ah, good one.
42:34A direct strike to the aircraft.
42:36Lightning-related accidents have been rare.
42:38But there's growing concern that the increased use of complicated electronics
42:42makes modern airplanes more vulnerable.
42:45I guess the concern today is the fact that we've become more dependent upon
42:49electronics in our aircraft with fly-by-wire control systems.
42:53And also, most of our instrumentation in the aircraft is electronically displayed on cathode ray tubes.
42:58So the research that's necessary to ensure that those continue to work during any type of
43:04lightning strike that an aircraft would take is very important.
43:09Some of that research includes test methods for protecting airplane components
43:14from interference by lightning.
43:17This is the nose cone of a Lear jet, which holds the radar.
43:21Engineers zap it with simulated lightning.
43:24Protecting electronics in modern airplanes is a challenge.
43:31Airplanes used to be made of aluminum, a metal that conducts lightning around the shell of the plane.
43:40Today, aircraft are fabricated not only of aluminum, but also of composites.
43:45And the glass composites, which is what the radome is made of that we tested here,
43:49that we tested here, don't conduct electricity at all.
43:52And for those things, we need to provide specific lightning diverter bars or other features on the outside,
43:59so the lightning doesn't completely puncture the fiberglass composites.
44:11The safety features need to be continually tested.
44:14Lightning still surprises even the seasoned researchers.
44:19One important thing is that for a long time, we used to think that there was only one
44:27bolt of current or impulse of electric current that might enter an airplane.
44:32But in recent years, we've appreciated the fact that there are, in fact, many strokes,
44:37all within just a fraction of a second, and all of these pulses of current flow through the aircraft.
44:43Well, I think the thing about lightning is there's always a little bit more to it than we thought there was.
44:53It's been 200 years since Ben Franklin, and studying lightning is still a hit-or-miss affair.
45:00For rocket launcher Dan Davis, after weeks on the mountain, it looks like a lucky day.
45:06The bottom of the storm to our west is now about six kilometers away.
45:15If we're getting nine kV per meter and it's five miles away, then if we get under it, then it's going to be pretty intense.
45:22I can't believe we got fields this high and it's still that far away.
45:27I just, I, yeah, I hope it doesn't, I hope it doesn't lose its oomph before it gets here.
45:32Lightning radar, the storm to our west, uh, the base of it is now five kilometers away and getting closer.
45:36I'd like to try a launch here very shortly, uh, uh, uh, Dr. Marshall. We've got fields as high as 17 kV per meter.
45:44Go for it then.
45:46When the time is right, Davis will start a countdown.
45:50After 10 seconds, he'll blow into this rubber tube.
45:55The force of the air triggers a switch which ignites propellants in this rocket.
46:00The tube provides a lightning-safe connection to the launch pad.
46:06How do fields look, Dan?
46:07The fields here at the Kiva are about, uh, 10.5 kV per meter.
46:1115 kV per meter is the usual threshold for triggering.
46:15We've got corona current beeps about every three seconds, uh.
46:19But Davis is itchy to trigger and time is running out on the thunderstorm season.
46:24I'm going to go ahead and try one, Cliff.
46:26Okay.
46:27All right, here goes number eight.
46:28Uh, we've had steady fields at 10.5 kV per meter for a while now.
46:33Uh, they're a bit low, but we're going to try anyway.
46:35Countdown, 10.
46:40Five.
46:43Launch.
46:50Launch, no trigger.
46:51The lightning discharge just before you launched.
46:53Radar operator Paul Crable shows why Davis missed the trigger.
46:59We said have a discharge.
46:59Natural lightning discharged the high electric field just before the rocket was launched.
47:06But the fields build quickly again.
47:08The fields here, uh, jump up to, uh, 15 to 17 kV per meter, but only for a couple seconds.
47:16Is that all right if I launch on the drop of a hat?
47:21You're getting transients about the same location you were before.
47:24It's to the north.
47:25I can still see the light from the flashes, even though we're in the clouds.
47:28Now, the fields are, oh, went up to 15.
47:31North.
47:32Countdown, 10.
47:37Launch.
47:38Woo-hoo!
47:43God.
47:45Jesus.
47:47Man.
47:48Successful trigger.
47:49Congratulations!
47:51It, like, started, uh, 19.3.
47:54At the rocket, and then it just traveled across the ground in that direction.
47:57I thought it took out the whole line of rockets, but it did not appear that it did.
48:00The electric field change looks like it triggered, Dan.
48:02Congratulations.
48:04Lighting field change right there.
48:08Field's here, 11.6 kV per meter and slowly rising.
48:17Make sure you got a window.
48:18Yep.
48:19We still have that window, don't we, Brian?
48:22There's little time to celebrate.
48:24A good storm is usually worth more than one trigger.
48:28The whole process is very, uh, very anxious, and it's, uh, full of a lot of excitement and
48:32stuff because you have to stay very primed on the, on the, uh, fields and wait for, uh,
48:36wait for the right time and then go.
48:38Uh, it's kind of like waiting for fireworks.
48:40Oh, my God, 19.6.
48:41It shot it way up.
48:51Woohoo!
48:52Trigger!
48:54It came down, and I'm not even certain it went through the bucket, see, because it quickly then,
48:59you know, here it is, frying and crackling in it, but it danced along the row of rockets.
49:04I thought it took out the rockets.
49:10The luck of the Kiva seems to spread across the country to Florida.
49:14Phil Barker and his team are ready.
49:16Hopefully today.
49:25We'll see what happens.
49:26The Florida rocket launchers are about to trigger 10 massive strikes in a long-awaited storm.
49:33Okay, it looks good. We have, uh, lightning activity within, uh, two to three kilometers now.
49:39Electric field is going up. Whenever you want to launch, uh, just go ahead. We have clearance from Camp
49:44landing. Two seconds, one, fire.
49:52Two seconds. Wow.
49:53Five. One.
49:56Oh, great trigger.
50:01Yes! Excellent!
50:03But when you're only standing a few hundred feet from the lightning bolt, and the rocket is fired,
50:08it goes up, it triggers this lightning bolt, uh, that's an amazing, amazing thing that, that
50:14that could be done. And, and every time I see it, it still amazes me.
50:20Oh, great trigger. That had a lot of current.
50:29It's got organic material in it. It'll have brown.
50:32Hmm.
50:34Because the sand around the fulgurite is burnt.
50:38Yeah, it certainly makes it easier.
50:40After the summer storm season is over, Phil Barker, Martin Heumann, and a team of archaeology students
50:46excavate the test site. That's amazing.
50:49Fulgurites split in half.
50:51For Heumann, the summer yields new fulgurites, sand converted into long glass objects by the extreme
50:58heat of lightning. They are true wonders of nature.
51:02Yeah, it really gets thick right there.
51:04Yeah, like an inch thick.
51:05From the ground or until...
51:05For Phil Barker, the fulgurites show that lightning does not disperse evenly through the soil,
51:11but heads right to underground power cables.
51:14It appears as though the lightning tracked along the concrete,
51:18or through the concrete, down underneath it, and then went down through the sand,
51:22uh, creating this, uh, what they call a fulgurite channel to the cable.
51:27The experiment reveals lightning damage that could have caused a significant power outage,
51:33affecting thousands of customers. Lightning is a significant threat to underground power cables,
51:40not just overhead lines. This research is a step toward the goal of uninterrupted power.
51:48Okay.
51:48Feels low, right?
51:50Yep.
51:50Yeah, they are.
51:51Okay.
51:51The summer storm season also draws to an end in the southwest.
51:58Set it down.
52:00The rocket launchers check their results.
52:05Let's go see.
52:05Let's check them out.
52:08Oh, I see.
52:10Oh, yeah. I like it. It could have been, uh...
52:12Well, I know what I smell. I smell fireworks.
52:14Well?
52:15I smell sulfur.
52:17Yeah.
52:17Dan Davis and his team succeeded in capturing lightning in a bucket.
52:21Ready?
52:22This is the lucky launch pad right here. We've triggered two times from here.
52:28Oh, my God.
52:29I like the looks of that.
52:30That's a good one.
52:31Yeah, a little pit in there.
52:32Look at that. That's beautiful.
52:34All right. I have high hopes for this one.
52:35Yeah.
52:37In the end, the results would prove disappointing.
52:41They didn't find the new form of carbon that they were looking for.
52:44Lightning doesn't give up its secrets so easily.
52:48There goes the rocket.
52:49It's amazing, because the whole thing looks like it translates this way over.
52:54I wonder if the wind was blowing in that direction.
52:55The usual reflection off the droplets.
52:57Right. Right.
52:59This is a very nice VCR. I like this.
53:02What does step do?
53:03You manually control it.
53:04Yeah, step does it. Step frame by frame.
53:07Look at... Oh, look.
53:08You can...
53:08Oh, that's amazing.
53:09Pieces of wire.
53:10There goes pieces of our wire.
53:12God, that's insane.
53:13The wire.
53:13That was amazing.
53:29Lightning, lightning, and more lightning.
53:31It is the ultimate sound and light show.
53:45Who is his hand for it?
53:49nap got his hand.
53:50The fake head be sure your eyes will see him as╨░╨╣╤В╨╡╤Б╤М industries.
53:51And the Caesar...
53:52WhoтАж
53:54I'm head to the chest.
53:54But then, another video will show on theцЛЬ.
53:57I'm tells you how to visit hopefully it regardless.
53:58We'll see.
53:59Come here on.
53:59Oh, my God.
54:29That was the best one yet. Thank you, God.
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