Lightning Tales

Kate sends this picture and news story and asks "Is there a message here???"

This was the dramatic scene as the world's largest statue of Jesus was hit by lightning.

The bolt parted the thunderclouds over Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to strike Christ the Redeemer.

The statue is 130ft tall, is made of 700 tons of reinforced concrete and stands atop the 2,296ft Corcovado mountain overlooking the city.

It was named one of the new Seven Wonders of the World in 2007.

Sunday's storm caused havoc in Rio, felling trees in several neighbourhoods - but did not damage the statue.

This amazing photograph gives whole new meaning to the phrase "May God strike me with lightning if..."

I respond:

I remember once standing with several people on a Colorado mountaintop (Mt. Audubon, NW of Boulder). Thunderstorms were beginning to billow on nearby mountains. We could point fingers into the air and swish them around and hear the air crackle and snap with static electricity. Thinking that we might be in danger of being hit by lightning, we all lay down on top of the mountain’s peak and avoided pointing fingers.

I told a lightning expert (Phil Krider, U of A, Tucson) this story, and he went pale. It is not unusual for mountain peaks to be hit by lightning, pointed fingers or not. His message would be:

“Avoid mountain peaks altogether whenever there is even the hint of lightning nearby.”

A mundane message perhaps, less supernatural than most, but accurate…..

Tony replies:

Years ago a good friend of mine was in a party of Mazamas (Portland climbing club) who were climbing Mt. Hood via the north ridge. During a break they became aware of electricity in the air, as evidenced by that crackling sound, sparks jumping from metal ice axes to the ground, long hair standing out radially, and so on. They decided that it would be a good idea to get the hell down off the mountain, and did so, trailing their ice axes behind them, which continued to spark every time they bounced off the ground. Once, many, many years ago, the teenaged I was standing beside the family car while there was thunderstorm “activity” going on. All at once I heard a huge Bam! and found myself on my hands and knees. Don’t know what happened.

Fonkcyclist replies:

Yeah, that's scary stuff. I was once hiking up above timberline in Rocky Mtn Ntl Park, when some ominous-looking clouds moved in rather quickly. I could feel the hairs on my arms start to raise, and I turned around and just ran down until I got back to treeline. That's probably the most scared I've been by weather in the mountains. Well, that and the time sudden flash blizzard conditions nearly (literally!) blew me off the mountain when I was riding my bike up on Mt. Evans. You never know what's gonna hit you up in the high country...