Significant weather approaching Heathrow now with impressive lightning
Close Call
Our family was enjoying a summer vacation at Virginia Beach, Virginia in 1959. [We would spend two weeks there every summer until the area became overrun with tourons (tourist + moron = touron).] Significant cumulus castellanus with black undersides were brewing on the horizon and my Navy veteran father gave the order to abandon the beach and head for our cottage. Just as we had collected our beach towels, books, radio, beach umbrella, rafts, and coolers, there was a multi-million candlepower flash and an huge explosion. We were knocked to the ground. 
As we shook our heads, slowly and dizzily stood, we realized that a bolt of lightning had struck not ten feet from where we had been "catching rays"! The immense heat of the stroke had formed a glass-like bowl about two feet in diameter as well as hundreds of fulgurite tubes. Had I realized their value, I should have saved a few, though I still have paroxysmal tinnitus to remind me of the event.
Dad had brought some of his golf clubs, including his 1-iron, to the beach to practice sand play that day. After our dance with Death, Dad exclaimed: "Even God can't hit a 1-iron!" Thank Zeus!
If only He could have hit a few hundred-thousand of the tourons with accurately guided electrical charges, Virginia Beach would have remained a subtropical paradise; instead it became the world's largest and most congested resort...
- Ed
As we shook our heads, slowly and dizzily stood, we realized that a bolt of lightning had struck not ten feet from where we had been "catching rays"! The immense heat of the stroke had formed a glass-like bowl about two feet in diameter as well as hundreds of fulgurite tubes. Had I realized their value, I should have saved a few, though I still have paroxysmal tinnitus to remind me of the event.Dad had brought some of his golf clubs, including his 1-iron, to the beach to practice sand play that day. After our dance with Death, Dad exclaimed: "Even God can't hit a 1-iron!" Thank Zeus!
If only He could have hit a few hundred-thousand of the tourons with accurately guided electrical charges, Virginia Beach would have remained a subtropical paradise; instead it became the world's largest and most congested resort...
- Ed
Does anyone have an explanation for the green sky
Join Date: Jan 2009
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Departing Norfolk Virginia after dark, in a rented aircraft, intending to stop at Baltimore. All went smoothly, following the lights on the western Chesapeake. I was starting the descent, when a flashing black cloud got in the way... don't remember making a conscious decision at all, but our Cessna banked sharply and scuttled back to Norfolk! Good move, we spent the next day (Thanksgiving, a US holiday) in the pilot's lounge watching the American football; another family with a bigger airplane tried to fly to Long Island and came back to Norfolk after attempting to land in 3 places up North. They looked like refugees when they returned!
We headed North the next day, and no problems at all.
We headed North the next day, and no problems at all.
Join Date: Dec 2010
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Why the Green Sky?
From EarthSky:
I remember being in the basement of our home 10 years ago in the early morning (6:30am) as a tornado passed by 2 blocks away. Indeed, the sky turned very green as could be seen from one of our basement windows...
Experts don’t agree on why the sky changes color before a tornado or severe thunderstorm. At least two theories suggest what might be the reason for the strange greenish-yellow color that (sometimes) precedes a storm.
Theory #1. Because air molecules scatter light. To understand this first theory, try picturing mountains in the distance, which often look a deepening blue. That blue color stems from the scattering of light by air molecules. The same reason, scattered light, causes the sky to look blue. Now remember that the strongest storms tend to happen late in the day. Some experts think that, before a thunderstorm, golden-reddish light from a sun low in the sky – and a natural bluing effect of the air – combine to create a green sky. The storm provides a dark backdrop and offsets this greenish or yellowish hue.
Theory #2. Because water is intrinsically blue. A different meteorological theory holds that storm clouds themselves may help make the color of the sky bluish-green. To understand this theory, you first need to know that water is intrinsically blue (sometimes you can see the bluish tint of water in a white bathtub). It could be that the storm clouds — which are filled with water — provide the color blue, which, again, is illuminated by the golden light of a low sun to create the color green.
To sum up, the reason for green skies before a storm isn’t entirely known. But it is known that a greenish-yellow sky before a storm is common in some parts of the world, while totally absent in others.
Theory #1. Because air molecules scatter light. To understand this first theory, try picturing mountains in the distance, which often look a deepening blue. That blue color stems from the scattering of light by air molecules. The same reason, scattered light, causes the sky to look blue. Now remember that the strongest storms tend to happen late in the day. Some experts think that, before a thunderstorm, golden-reddish light from a sun low in the sky – and a natural bluing effect of the air – combine to create a green sky. The storm provides a dark backdrop and offsets this greenish or yellowish hue.
Theory #2. Because water is intrinsically blue. A different meteorological theory holds that storm clouds themselves may help make the color of the sky bluish-green. To understand this theory, you first need to know that water is intrinsically blue (sometimes you can see the bluish tint of water in a white bathtub). It could be that the storm clouds — which are filled with water — provide the color blue, which, again, is illuminated by the golden light of a low sun to create the color green.
To sum up, the reason for green skies before a storm isn’t entirely known. But it is known that a greenish-yellow sky before a storm is common in some parts of the world, while totally absent in others.
