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Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Lightning and Sailboats

On the subject of lightning strikes and sailboats, here is a free e-book on the subject from the University of Florida. 4-20% of all sailboats there are struck by lightning each year. Here in western Washington we're lucky to see 4 - 20 lightning flashes each year, due to our propensity for frontal systems to be occluded by the time they reach our shores. In the tropics, it's a whole different situation.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/SG/SG07100.pdf

3 comments:

  1. Lightning strikes are a huge issue in Florida for everything, boating, all outdoor sports, beach and space launches. We have sirens to alert us to take cover inside a building NOT under trees. The news here always summarizes the number of lightning strikes in each daily weather report.
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  2. The closest I ever came to being struck by lightning was in Orlando. Scary stuff. But beautiful; I must admit I miss the east coast thunderstorms.

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