STORM TRACK: March 31, 1984 (Volume 7 Issue 3)

Ed. Note: Pencil shading added to highlight Steve's excellent sketches.

My name is Steve Leitch. I'm 34 and I chase storms in southern Ontario. I've been lucky to run across your STORM TRACK at my local library and I anxiously await each new issue. Your articles and reports are always interesting and extremely stimulating, particularly during the drudgery of winter. I would like to compliment the artistic talent behind the drawings and illustrations that add so much to STORM TRACK.

I've always been fascinated by watching thunderstorms and then actively started investigating and chasing severe storms in the spring of 1980 with 3 friends who were already into it. Together or individually we document severe storm events (tornadic or otherwise) in southern and central Ontario by surveying and photographing each storms damage on the same day or the following day. We collect local newspaper clippings, interview witnesses, ask if anyone took photographs during the storm, then plot the track and damage patterns on a topographic map, categorize the storm ( tornado, F-rating, funnel cloud, downburst, hail and size, etc. ) and finally write up a report for our files. In the summer on active or unstable days; primed with a current forecast, and live radar picture, armed with radios and cameras, I'll take off to a likely storm area and fine tune my position by cloud examination while awaiting an event. Most times the chase is unsuccessful, but still I will chase.

In your Nov 30, 1983 issue, Feature #3 dealt with" Storm Chasing Safety Tips". I want to pursue one item under the category on 'Lightning Safety'. It was said, "When stopping for pictures, I usually locate within 1/2 mile of a higher object like a tree or windmill." It, has been my experience when in a heavy lightning situation,to have seen lightning strike directly to the ground even though there were taller objects, such as a barn and distribution power lines only 25 meters away. In the flashing, flickering cacophonous barrage of a half dozen strikes (or more) over a couple of minutes duration; the barn, power lines and even the house I was viewing from were struck, but their mere proximity did not prevent direct strikes to earth. A good rule to follow is that used by insurance companies, who cover low structures (houses) in the event of direct lightning damage or subsequent fire. That structure should be adequately protected by the erection of lightning rods at it's peaks and high corners in such a manner as to shelter the entire structure within a 45 cone or series of cones (the apex of each cone being at the top of each lightning rod). And all the lightning rods should be electrically tied together by a heavy braided conductor,that runs directly to a good electrical earth ground and in as straight a line as possible. A proper installation will assure a structure of 95% protection - NOT 100%.

So to be within 1/2 mile of a higher object, or even a quarter mile is actually NO protection at all. You would have to locate inside the 45 deg cone of a well grounded object to receive any protection. And don't be fooled by seeking protection near a tall tree. Being within a tree's 45 deg cone will still probably spare you a direct strike, but a tree is neither a good conductor nor is it well grounded. Some trees are going to explode or, at least, splinter throwing high speed wooden missiles. The lightning, also, may not go directly to ground through the tree's root system and may, itself, splinter from the base of the tree and run across the surface of the ground looking for any entry point nearby. People and cattle have both been killed this way. The only tree that might protect you is one that has already been heavily wetted so as to conduct the lightning in the rainwater on the surface of the bark, thus preventing the debris explosion, and one situated in a heavily saturated earth, wet by a long day's rain or by virtue of a wet season or wet area. It's still risky to locate near trees.

While chasing storms on the open highways, staying within your car is probably your best protection against harm due to a direct lightning strike, But there is another way to get protection while in the open, especially if you want to get out of your car, say, for some really great camera shots. You are not as much out in the open as you think,when you take a look at that power line or telephone line running down the side of the road. What I do is locate my car under a power line whenever I can. The power line is high, it has a 45 deg cone, it's grounded, and it runs for miles right next to the very road you're travelling. Now, usually the power line, next to roads, is actually too far back to give you any protection while you are on the road. But, every so often a cross brace wire or distribution line may pass over to the other side of the road,and all you have to do is pull onto the shoulder and park under it. It doesn't matter that the cross brace wire has insulators on it. It should still afford protection because the wire is drawing the electrical attention of the cloud and, should there be a direct strike to that wire,the lightning would arc over the insulators running down the cables to ground.

You could also turn onto a farm road placing your car directly beneath the power line. And if you do decide to get out of your car to take a picture,all the wires are directly overhead and much less likely to become a forgotten, but haunting blemish across your otherwise prize winning funnel photograph.

Here is a simple way, while out on a storm chase, to test if your car is the object, of some charged cloud base's attention. All you need is an ordinary AM car radio or an AM CB radio. (I'm not sure if this method applies to those cars that have their antenna embedded in the front windshield; I haven't tested them, so let's just talk about cars with the ordinary external car aerial or CB antenna.) A charged cloud base possesses a strong static electric field that sends earthward many branched long leaders, the forerunners of an actual return stroke. The earth and all the objects on it respond beneath this static field by putting forth much shorter upward leaders,that can be easily detected on a car radio. Perhaps you've already heard it, not identified it as such, and passed it off as some transient radio interference. The upward leaders sound like a loud zipper that, when weak, has individual static clicks, but when intense the zipper sound gets louder and higher in pitch until your radio is virtually screaming and hissing. On your CB radio the meter will, also, be driven upscale.

The interference is so overwhelming that it will override any station on your radio. The only thing that can be heard over this whining 'zipper' is lightning crashes, and they will often cause an immediate change to the pitch of the 'zipper', as charges are realigned within the cloud and on the ground. On a couple of occasions, when the wind was calm and all was quiet, I have stepped out, of my car (a dangerous thing to do when the 'zipper' is running), and I have heard the faint sound of 'zipper' static emanating directly from the tops of taller objects in my vicinity. If you can hear the 'zipper', then your area (your car included) is a potential target for a return stroke. You can safely experiment with the 'zipper' and the zones of protection under wires some time when you're out in your car in a thunderstorm. If you should hear a continuous 'zipper' on your radio; just listen to what happens as you drive under overhead wires or pass within the 45 cone of taller objects. The 'zipper' will diminish and often vanish briefly through these zones, only to abruptly reappear as you pass into unprotected open space beyond. With your radio as your potential lightning strike detector you can observe your favorite storm, while parked under an overhead wire, and not feel so uneasy when you leave the safety of your car.