Windsock met with Lightning.

CharlieN · Jul 21, 2021

So we drove home after a meeting at the local airport (KRUT), a squall line was following us. As the storm was making itself known I went to bed.
Laying on my back winding down with a rather heavy rain with lighting around us, a lull, And then, and then a bolt of lightning strikes the windsock.
Mind you the head of my bed is against a 4' X 8' picture window, the sky can't hide.
The windsock is 40' from my bed and is about a 40' tall steel pole set in a 5' lump on concrete. More good concrete than that motel in Fla had.

CharlieN · Jul 21, 2021

Oh a before shot, Last November when I put this up,

wireweinie · Jul 21, 2021

Looks like the end of 'Wizard of Oz'.

Web

Mot · Jul 21, 2021

Did your hair stand on end a couple seconds before the strike?

CharlieN · Jul 21, 2021

Mot said:
Did your hair stand on end a couple seconds before the strike?

Not sure this time, was laying on my back head against the wall under the window in the dark.
Way back in time, mid '80s this is, North 40 at OSH we usually traveled in a C-402. Storm was rolling in, I had never seen Ball lightning, I tend to love thunder storms. Here I am up on the wing leaning against the cabin watching the incoming squall line. Anyone who has met me knows I have almost all my life had "longer hair", a heritage thing.
So here I am up on the wing and my hair is standing straight up. Guys are calling to me to get down. Two of them climbed up and bodily took me off the plane. Darn, I was feeling great.
Sometimes I wonder if that was to be my last day.
Leaving in the morning for OSH, wonder what this year will bring.

Mot · Jul 21, 2021

CharlieN said:
So here I am up on the wing and my hair is standing straight up. Guys are calling to me to get down. Two of them climbed up and bodily took me off the plane. Darn, I was feeling great.
Sometimes I wonder if that was to be my last day.
Leaving in the morning for OSH, wonder what this year will bring.

A Fire Weather Meteorologist (IMET) showed this photo in a class I attended on Fire Weather. He said these two were found dead from a lightning strike and this photo was found in their camera. I think it was on El Capitan in Yosemite NP. Google NOAA/PA 99050 ARC 1122 to find the NOAA brochure it is in. On page 13.

CharlieN · Jul 21, 2021

Sometimes you got to understand a warning.

courierguy · Jul 21, 2021

I too had a bit of windsock drama, though a bit milder. My oak 6x8 (got free, somewhere) rotted off in 12 years and went from plumb to almost falling over in a couple days, I was lucky to notice it before it tipped over and buggered up the sock frame. The Jaws of Death attachment on the Kubota made short work of it, and interestingly enough all the rot was just an inch or 2 below the surface level, I don't think it would have made thru the next windy spell. The new install will use some 3" pipe I scrounged and a tilt down base, and a post hole dug/concrete pier. Not the money, I just find it fun to use what I have on hand.

CharlieN · Jul 22, 2021

Jaws for the tractor would be nice. This pole was originally a base for a BIG TV dish that was near the house when we bought it 24 years back. Had some channels already paid for buy the couch potatoes we bought from. When digital TV started coming in we only had a few Canadian and German channels, humm Arabic as well. We never have paid for a TV service. Having gotten tired of the lightning strikes, Humm forgot about them till writing this, I took the pole and dish down.
But when we wanted a windsock I recalled the pole which now was grown into the woods. What a job it was to extract that with my antique Kubota.

Mot · Jul 22, 2021

My wife has an App on her cell phone to take lightning photos. She stands out in the yard when there is a storm near by and aims her phone in the direction of the storm. I have to tell her to get in the house when the storms are too close for comfort.

Kahles56 · Jul 22, 2021

Too cool, Can you get the name of the APP .I would like to have it to use.
Thanks,
Ken

Mot · Jul 22, 2021

Kahles56 said:
Too cool, Can you get the name of the APP .I would like to have it to use.
Thanks,
Ken

The lightning app is iLightningcam. Type iLightningcam in the search box in the apple app store. $1.99.

The first three photos above she took with her phone. The last one was taken in1993 with an old SLR camera on a tripod with the shutter held open for a while.

courierguy · Jul 25, 2021

I found it oddly disturbing not to have a windsock at the bottom of my property, 2 days was all, but it bugged me enough I went down and dug a new hole, in 90+ degree temps, hauled water and concrete mix down, and planted the scabbed together support (all steel) late yesterday. That wasn't good enough, rather than wait a week or two for the concrete to gain strength, I put the sock on it's new support tonight. All's right with the world again. I've had a wind sock, same frame, numerous socks, for 40+ years continuous, no use stopping now.

CharlieN · Feb 25, 2022

Where my windsock is at after that lightning strike, interesting enough it let itself reform to it's original duty. But now, it is enduring some end of life throes, I do not think it will be surviving much longer.

courierguy · Feb 25, 2022

I hang my windsocks that have "reached the end of their service life" in the shop, right next to the broken props.

CharlieN · Feb 25, 2022

I do have to say these China socks as I bought are not made from any solar resistant material.

courierguy · Feb 25, 2022

I get around 3-5 years in the Idaho weather life out of mine, I get them from Spruce and seem to be high quality. I let them get real tattered and faded, usually waiting until they rip badly before replacing.

KevinJ · Feb 25, 2022

My socks come from a buddy that works at a Phillips refinery that happens to blend avgas. I think they may get “liberated” from the storage closet but I don’t ask questions. Like Tom, I think I’ll hang the old one on the wall of shame next to the bent struts.

courierguy · Feb 26, 2022

I have a 12' dia. 3 bladed wind turbine on a 60' tower up by the hangar, and my conventional windsock is 1/4 mile away, and 150' lower. It is very interesting (and a bit scary) to see how often they disagree. In the morning especially, as the rising sun seems to make whatever the winds aloft are doing rise or lower. Not unusual to have both indicating calm air, then 1500' up I get 25+ winds. Something to do, no doubt with having a 9K+ range in my backyard. 40 years of dealing with this area's micro meteorology, and the education continues.

cubdriver2 · Feb 28, 2022

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Funartsculptures

Glenn

Mot · Mar 7, 2022

Poor man's wind sock

I keep a new replacement on hand in case this one doesn't last long. Wind 30 gusting to 50.

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/685524371

Windsock met with Lightning.

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