Detecting Lightning With TV

[Sam Kennedy]

I remember reading how to detect lightning with a TV set.
You had to do something like turn the screen brightness down, and tune the tv to a certain setting.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about? If you do could you explain how to do it properly, or link me to the original article?

[Chip Redmond]

Now thats old school. I can't help you there though. We don't have cable and before the big "changeover" we used to pick up lighting anyway within a 30 mile radius with the old antenna. It would just fuzz the screen. The stronger the bolt the fuzzier it was.

I feel the best way to old school determine lightning, and still useful, is use a AM radio. Tune to a frequency with no close station and listen to the static. You will be able to hear it crack every time theres a bolt. Same concept as the TV, stronger/closer strikes are louder and more crisp.


Chip

[Karla Dorman]

I seem to remember turning the tv to channel 2 (or lowest band without station reception), turning down the brightness, and looking for a "zip" - a horizontal "flash". The more frequent the "flashes," the closer the storm was. Hope that's right - been a long time since I've used that method!

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

I do not know about soon-to-be-turned-off NTSC, but here in Estonia with PAL broadcasts, I have noticed static snow jumping on the screen even on a close transmitter if a lightning strikes somewhere... However, I have noticed the lightning snow on close transmitters and the accompanying static seems to appear only if lightning is close by and lightning noise is more of an urgent warning to unplug the set. Nowadays I watch TV digitally though, but I assume on DTV, the lightning noise would probably cause some sort of stuttering in the feed.

As far as old school lightning detection goes, the AM radio always has the final say in my home whether there is thunder somewhere or not.

[Jon Miller]

In the 1960's Newton Weller , from Iowa , invented the TV method for detecting an approaching tornado's based on its lightning :

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/1971-05-01/How-To-Track-a-Tornado.aspx

Not sure if this was ever proved for sure or not but interesting none the less.

Jon Miller
KT8NDO

[Darren Addy]

Sam's original question was on lightning detection, not tornado detection (but that Mother Earth News article is interesting, if ultimately impractical today).

If you are interested in lightning detection, Sam, you might appreciate this page:
http://www.techlib.com/electronics/lightning.html

[Lanny Dean]

Sam's original question was on lightning detection, not tornado detection (but that Mother Earth News article is interesting, if ultimately impractical today).

If you are interested in lightning detection, Sam, you might appreciate this page:
http://www.techlib.com/electronics/lightning.html

Sam's original question might have been about lighting but the old tv theory was regarding and in relation to detecting the proximity of possible tornadoes. The theory was that by tuning to your lowest VHF channel (usually channel 2 - 50.25 mhz) and turning the brightness down just beyond the base/visable luminace level (black screen) when a tornado was near the screen would begin to glow or light up.

The theory was tested time and time again with very minor results,
(Vonnegut 1960)
It was then proposed that lightning may not have a direct link to the tornado but may provide ohmic heating to "charge" the atmosphere into helping produce a tornado.

[J West]

These comments about the lightning and tornado detection via TV just gave me a blast from the past that I'd forgotten about for many years. At my now-deceased grandmother's house in rural SD, she had a type-written note describing the process from the link above on the wall next to her desk in the dining room. I clearly remember reading it several times over the years...it said something about the TV picking up the electrical energy from the tornadic storm and displaying it as white light. I can't remember if it made a distinction between tornadoes and lightning, but I seem to recall the short note mentioned both.

I remember asking her about it once, and she said that it "kind of" worked but she still didn't trust it completely (smart lady!). She said before they got power on the farm (1950's), they just went into the root cellar if they saw a "cyclone" near them during the day, or if they thought there might be one at night.