Weather Myths & Facts

As a kid, I remember adults saying lightning never strikes the same place twice. To this day, I still hear people referencing this old saying, or should I say, myth? Can lightning strike the same place twice? Lightning doesn’t have a memory, and if an object has been struck once, it is no less likely to be struck a second time. The shuttle launch pad at Cape Canaveral gets hit time and time again, sometimes more than once in the same storm. How about the Empire State Building in New…
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Ball lightning is as mysterious as Big Foot and as controversial as UFO’s. No scientist has ever been able to conclusively prove its existence while at the same time no scientist has been able to prove it doesn’t exist. All we have are sketches and eyewitness accounts which unfortunately hold no weight in the scientific community. So where does that leave us? Is ball lightning real or is it just a myth? That may be a difficult question to answer. We do have a lot of theories that claim it…
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Some homeowners apply masking or duct tape to their windows in preparation for a hurricane. The fact is, tape will do nothing to help preserve your windows or protect your home. There are far better things to spend your time on when preparing for a hurricane. Unlike older windows made of plate glass, modern safety windows are much safer with respect to shattering into sharp pieces. They are also much stronger. Most windows are coated in clear acrylic or plastic that holds the pieces together should the window get struck…
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Lightning rods have been around since Benjamin Franklin first discovered lightning was made of electricity. And by watching a thunderstorm, logic would conclude that if one were to position a metal rod at the highest point on a structure, a lightning bolt would strike it, direct the electricity into the ground, thus averting damage to the structure itself. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. As strange as this may sound, metal doesn’t attract lightning. Nothing does. Lightning can strike anything, conductive or non-conductive, and what it does strike isn’t always obvious….
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