A Lightning Bolt In Oklahoma Was Almost 200 Miles Long

A lightning bolt extends far outside a thunderstorm
in Darwin, Australia in 2015. This is impressive but
nothing compared to the nearly 200 mile long
lightning bolt in Oklahoma back in 2007

We know that lightning doesn't stay neatly inside thunderstorms.

Conventional wisdom is that lightning can hit the ground 20 miles or more from the storm, so even if you just hear thunder in the distance, you're close enough to get struck by lightning. 

However, this latest bit of news is ridiculous. Researchers said a new record was set back in 2007 for the longest lightning bolt ever seen.

It extended nearly 200 miles from around Tulsa, Oklahoma all the way west to that state's panhandle, says the World Meteorological Organization. Lightning detectors on the ground tracked the bolt.

This particular bolt of lightning was dangerous, as all lightning is. This one was just more so. It originated about six miles above Tulsa and hit the ground several times on its extension out to the plains of western Oklahoma, reports the Tulsa World.

Such long lightning strikes might have us rethinking what is generally called the 30/30 rule. That rule is if you see a lightning bolt, start counting off 30 seconds. If it takes longer than 30 seconds to hear the thunder, it's generally safe to stay outside. If it's less than 30 seconds, time to head indoors.

"These kinds of rules need to be looked at. It's going to depend on the kind of thunderstorm....You really need to know where it (lightning is occurring. There could be a lower risk - the lower the flash rate - but it's not no risk," said Timothy Lang, a researcher at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, according to the Tulsa World.

Thunderstorms are rattling around Oklahoma today. Let's hope they don't get any lightning strikes like the one in 2007!

Meanwhile, another lightning record was discovered in France - the world's longest lasting lightning bolt. Researchers said the French bolt in 2012 doubled back on itself, helping it last a whopping 7.74 seconds. Lightning bolts usually last about a second.







Timothy Lang, a researcher at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama


"These kinds of rules need to be looked at. It's going to depend on the kind of thunderstorm," Lang said. "You really need to know where it (lightning) is occurring. There could be a lower risk — the lower the flash rate — but it's not 'no-risk.'"




The epic lightning bolt hit during a day of crappy weather over eastern Oklahoma on June 20, 2007.  A big complex of thunderstorms formed, causing a lot of wind, rain, and a tornado or two that caused a bit of damage to some homes.

December Warmth Is Getting Insane

Flowers manage to bloom --Outdoors! -- in South Burlington,
Vermont on December 15, 2015. I've never seen anything
like this in northwestern Vermont. 

For the fourth morning in a week at my perch in northwestern Vermont, I awoke this morning to temperatures of near 50 degrees, instead of the teens I would expect this time of year.

Early morning weather is more like Memorial Day weekend and not the Christmas season.

Incredible warmth has bathed the eastern half of the nation for the better part of a week (or more) now, and there's no sign it's going to end soon.  

The temperatures were amazing in some areas Monday Want to enjoy a Buffalo lake effect blizzard? Not now. It was a record 71 degrees in Buffalo, New York Monday, the second highest reading seen in December in more than 120 years of data there.

Hot in Cleveland? You bet!  It was 70 degrees there on Saturday. Cleveland "cooled" down to a record high of 65 on Monday. Like many cities in the eastern half of the nation, Cleveland is so far running 10 degrees or so above normal for December.

The record warmth has hit various areas of the United States and Canada all month. It was in the 50s in Manitoba early in December which is pretty incredible for them.

Incredibly a few plants remain green and relatively
lush in my perennial flower garden in far northwestern Vermont.
This is December!! 

The warmth even created a new Internet sensation, when a TV reporter interviewed a hunky shirtless jogger in 60-degree December Chicago. The hunky jogger is now something of the symbol of this weird, warm December.

Here in Vermont, not a flake of snow has yet fallen in December, something I've never seen before. We've also haven't had one day yet this fall and winter when a high temperature failed to rise above freezing. That's also something I've never seen before.

Daily record highs and lows are always being broken, of course. But it's truly lopsided this month in favor of the warm side.

As of Tuesday morning, NOAA says 1,143 United States reporting stations have clocked record highs in the past seven days while only two reported record lows.

Love it or hate it, this state of affairs will continue for awhile. Yeah, the West will continue to cool off,  but medium and long range forecasts are really insisting the eastern half of the nation will stay warm for the next couple of weeks.

Lots of record highs will probably fall on and around Christmas from much of eastern Canada and the eastern half of the United States.

Places that usually get a white Christmas probably won't this year, but think about how much you're saving on your heating bill.  

The eight to fourteen day forecast through December 28
strongly suggest continued warm in the East. 

Why is this warmth happening?

I hate to use this word, since it's overused so much, but part of the blame or credit goes to the Polar Vortex.

To review, social media hysteria notwithstanding, the Polar Vortex is a totally normal pool of very cold air that usually hangs around somewhere near the North Pole, but can sneak further south and give mid latitudes one of those nasty winter cold waves.

Those sneaks to the south happen when the jet stream weakens and allows the Polar Vortex to slip south.

That's what happened on numerous occasions in the eastern United States in the winters of 2014 and 2015.

This December, a strong west to east jet stream is keeping the Polar Vortex bottled up way up by the North Pole, so it's hard for the cold air up there to head south toward us.

The current record strong El Nino is probably playing a role, too. The unusually warm patch of water in the eastern Pacific Ocean messes with weather patterns worldwide when it hits. Not always, but very often, strong El Ninos bring very warm early winters to eastern North America.

Global warming is NOT the main influence in this ridiculously hot December, but it probably plays a minor supporting role. It's probably bumping up temperatures a couple degrees more than they otherwise would be, enough maybe to break a few additional record highs.

Plus, there's some research to suggest that global warming might cause more frequent strong El Ninos, like the one we're having now.

For those of you who like winter, all is not lost yet. There's no reason to think the weather pattern can't change later in the winter. If it does January and February might just bring us the traditional cold and snow.

Guy Swept Away In Texas Flood And Stuck In A Tree Gives Calm TV Interview

News anchors at television station KVUE are stunned
when they realize the person they're interviewing
is stranded 20 feet up a tree by floodwaters on Friday.  

At the end of yesterday's post I wrote about the Texas flood, I included a YouTube clip taken by a motorist inside a car being swept rapidly down a badly flooding creek. Scary stuff.

The guy, Kerry Packer, had emailed the video to his wife, who shared it with Austin, Texas television station KVUE.

Now we have an interview with this guy. It's one of the most incredible, strangest interviews I've heard.

The clip you'll see below starts with the anchors at KVUE, who were providing live coverage of the flood emergency, interviewing Packer.

Early in the interview, you can tell the reporters assumed, like all of us, that Packer had been rescued. After all, why would he be talking to the television station?  He seemed so calm as he talked.

It turns out Packer called KVUE to describe his experience.

One of the anchors asked Packer where he was now.

He said he was still 20 feet up a tree he'd climbed up in the flood waters. He'd grabbed the tree as his car floated by.

You'll see how stunned the reporters are: "Wait, wait, you're still up in the TREE?!?!?" one of them asks.

Kerry Packer looks pretty good, considering this photo
was taken a few minutes after he was rescued from a tree
after spending four hours there trapped by floodwaters.  

Packer remains totally calm, as if he's sitting at a desk in his high and dry office.

"Oh, no, I'm fine... Thankfully this is the nicest tree here. It's a little cold, but I did Boy Scouts for 20 years, so I know how to keep my energy up and keep warm, so I'm doing fine."

The news anchors don't look like they're doing fine. They're ashen with concern. They pump him politely but aggressively for information on precisely where he is, so that rescuers can find him.

All the while, Packer is chatting amiably with the two KVUE anchors.  He tells them he can't see any un-submerged land, and he's in large tree he believes is in the northeast corner of a country club.

Emergency responders later confirmed to KVUE that they'd rescued Packer after he'd been in the tree for four hours and he's fine.

The takeaway: If you need someone who would be totally, totally calm in an emergency, find Kerry Packer in the Austin, Texas area.

Another takeaway: This flood interview is even better than the one in which a South Carolina woman said in a recent flash flood at her house she took her dog and two Totinos pizzas as she fled.

Here's the amazing news clip of this Texss flood interview:

Lake Champlain Shores Could Get Interesting With Ice Breakup, Gusty Winds

In the Champlain Valley on Thursday, southerly winds are expected to gust over 40 mph amid temperatures that by afternoon are likely to flirt with 60 degrees.

Damage along a Canadian lake last spring
when strong winds drove a wall of thawing
ice onshore and into shoreline cabins.  

Much of the lake is still frozen, but the ice is breaking up. Which could make things on south facing shores of Lake Champlain interesting on Thursday.

The wind could push some of the ice on shore, driving heavy blocks of ice onto embankments, lawns, even roads and property.

Those waves of wind driven ice chunks could be enough to cause some property damage, if the wind indeed drives some of the ice onshore.  It could be dramatic as in spots.

I don't think it will be too destructive, certainly not as bad as in the videos, below. This was last spring when 40 mph wind gusts drove ice onshore damaging homes. Pretty scary and awesome:




The same thing happened last spring on a Canadian lake, with even more damage:

Very Strange Winter Storm in Midwest Had Incredible Lightning Sunday.

For some reason, over the past couple of years, a surprising number of winter storms in the United States have spat out lightning and "thunder snow"

James Menzies of @UKStormChaser on Twitter captured

these incredible cloud to ground lightning bolts amid

sleet and snow Sunday near Norman, Oklahoma.  

The one crossing the nation now really takes the cake. Huge swaths of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and other areas had a lot of thunder and lightning as heavy sleet fell.

Sleet was the predominant precipitation in that area, though some thunderstorms also had freezing rain or snow.

Usually, thunder in winter storms comes from so called "elevated" thunderstorms.  The cold air near the earth's surface has undercut the warm air thunderstorms usually thrive on.

So the thunderstorms develop a little higher up in the atmosphere than they normally do, up in the warm air that's on top of the thin layer of chill near the ground. In these cases,  most of the lightning is up high, crackling between the clouds. Some strikes hit the ground, but not many.

This winter weather system had a number of storms with lots of lightning strikes hitting the ground. Some were actually quite severe, and you had the spectacle of hail the size of quarters mixing with the deluge of sleet pellets beneath the thunderstorm.

A strange weather event indeed.

Here's what it looked like on the ground:  Quarter sized hail causing damage amid just a torrential downpour of sleet in the midst of the storm, which also brought lightning and thunder to this area.