Mysterious audio follows lightning strike; Report: Forecast for the bill’s passage cloudy; Severe weather strikes South Plains; Rain, winds tear through Indiana; Brace for an active hurricane season; Expert: Neighborhood weather forecasts coming soon; Unrepentant weatherman finishes telling his story; 6.9 quake rocks Indonesia’s Sumatra; 4th delay for launch of a weather satellite; Undersea quake site probe; lucky Friday The 13th; Restaurant, pub cams expose us
Mysterious Audio Follows Lightning Strike: I’m usually content to post links to stories I find interesting, with a smattering of personal comments here and there, but I think something interesting happened to me in my home overnight — a stormy Friday The 13th night — that I should share here.
A line of strong, but not severe, thunderstorms was moving into the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex between midnight and 1 a.m. Saturday. My wife was asleep (or trying to sleep at this point since the thunder was rattling all of our windows). I was downstairs and had our TV tuned to a radar image from a local station. I had turned off the TV sound by turning off my receiver, so that the only electronics on in the house at that time were the TV, Dish Network receiver and upstairs computer, with its speakers turned off.
Moments later, there was a bright flash and simultaneous crackling sound that seemed almost deafening. A lightning bolt must have struck within feet of my home. Immediately after the strike, I heard what I can only describe as sound from a loud AM or shortwave radio tuned to a man broadcasting something. I’m not sure exactly what was said, as I wasn’t expecting it, and the transmission only lasted for about 5 seconds. The sound may have emanated from the speakers on top of the armoire, despite the receiver being turned off.
My frightened dog, Jake, ran downstairs to me and I went upstairs to my now-awake wife and asked her if she had heard anything besides that incredibly loud crackling sound, since I thought one of the clock radios upstairs might have gone off. She said she heard the crackling sound but no voice.
Anyway, I started looking into whether others have reported hearing radio waves at the moment of an extremely close lightning strike, and haven’t had much luck. This article states:
A lightning strike can propagate noise on many frequencies, however, most of the effective radiated energy is concentrated in the very low frequency range.
But could it work the other way, and audio from a radio transmission be carried though a lightning strike?
Has anyone else experienced or read of something similar happening?
If not, maybe my house is haunted, or I need medication…
NWS Bill Update: Thanks to CapitalWeather for an update to Santorum’s NWS bill: Newark NJ Star-Ledger article‘s conclusion: “The forecast for the bill’s passage is cloudy. Filed April 14, it still had no co-sponsors as of May 11.”
Weather News: Severe weather strikes South Plains: A tornado destroyed a man’s home for the second time. The first tornado was in in 1957.
Rain, winds tear through Indiana
From Florida: As the hurricane season is set to begin in a couple of weeks, scientists say those in Florida, on the East Coast and the Gulf, should brace for an active season
Neighborhood weather forecasts coming soon, one expert says
Unrepentant weatherman finishes telling his story: Bill Kamal talks about what’s next
Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia’s Sumatra: No tsunami, casualties reported after 6.9-magnitude temblor
Space & Science News: NASA delays for the fourth time the launch of a weather satellite from Calif.
Scientists to investigate undersea quake site
A lucky Friday The 13th ahead?: Asteroid 2004 MN4 will come scarily close to Earth on April 13, 2029, but it will not hit
World Of Webcams: Restaurant & pub webcams expose us to pervs, snoops
Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Friday: 1. Indianapolis 2. Oklahoma City 3. Dallas/Fort Worth 4. Detroit 5. Fort Wayne … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.
