Taping Windows During a Hurricane

August 24th, 2005 by imagery

Sometimes you will see homeowners tape their windows with masking or duct tape in preparation for a hurricane. The fact is, tape will do nothing to help preserve your windows, protect your home, or prevent them from shattering. It’s simply a waste of effort and time that could of been spent doing better things preparing for the hurricane’s arrival.

Unlike older windows made of plate glass, modern day windows (or at least as of the last 20 years) are much safer with respect to shattering. Windows today are made with safety glass. The most common type of safety glass is where the glass is coated in clear acrylic or plastic that will hold the pieces together should the window get struck with an object. The glass in effect shatters and remains trapped between the plastic coatings. In addition, the glass breaks into small round pieces that do no have any sharp edges. So applying tape to this type of window does not decrease the chance of sharp fragments being produced nor will increase the strength of the window.

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Can Lightning Strike the Same Place Twice?

August 20th, 2005 by imagery

empire state building struck by lightning

A popular myth is that lightning cannot strike the same place twice, but nothing could be further from the truth. Lightning does, can and will strike the same exact place more than once. It doesn’t have a memory, and if an object has been struck once, it is no less likely to be struck a second time. If you don’t believe me, just ask some of the employees at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The shuttle launch pad gets hit time and time again, sometimes more than once in the same storm. How about the Empire State Building in New York city which gets struck by lightning about 25 times each year. Even Roy Sullivan was struck by lightning 7 times!

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