What can a person think when he hears the word "lightning"? Traditionally, such an amazingly beautiful and at the same time terrible natural phenomenon such as a thunderstorm comes to mind. However, there is more than a scientific explanation for the bright flashes in the sky. Some believe that lightning bolts are real energy “monsters” that appear from the other world, who joke, punish and … kill.
Lightning. What are they like?
Scientific research shows that lightning is a strong electrical discharge that occurs during a thunderstorm. This phenomenon occurs as a result of the collision of individual particles in the cloud, which carry positive and negative charges. By their nature, lightning strikes are so strong that the energy of just one discharge would be enough to boil water in more than 1,000,000 electric kettles at a time. Every second, the Earth's surface is exposed to up to 100 lightning strikes. They are also called linear. In the overwhelming majority of cases, a "meeting" with such a heavenly messenger ends with death for a person, because his body is simply not able to withstand the impact of the strongest electrical discharge. However, there are lucky ones who still managed to survive such an event.
Mysterious and mystical "tricks" of lightning
It would seem that everything is simple and understandable, because lightning is a natural phenomenon. However, there are situations when the “fiery guest” asks riddles that no scientist can solve. So, for example, from time to time they manage to leave on the human body the so-called "Lichtenberg figures" - something like photographic prints, which often resemble tree branches, leaves or a feather of a bird.
The fact that zippers manage to completely burn out underwear on a person, while leaving his outer clothing unharmed, remains mysterious. And those who managed to miraculously survive after meeting such a heavenly phenomenon may subsequently become the owners of unique abilities. Once an American, after being subjected to an electrical discharge, completely lost the feeling of cold. And then, when the weather was freezing, he could walk freely in shorts. Absolutely incredible cases were also recorded when a lightning strike returned sight to blind people.
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There are many descriptions of cases when the "fire ladies" played a cruel joke with their victims. For example, at the end of June 1869, the head of a French city decided to hide under a tall tree during a severe thunderstorm. The lightning that hit the poplar, by a strange coincidence, did not kill the man, but only stripped him naked and scattered torn pieces of clothing to the sides. Only one shoe survived, which remained on the mayor's leg. And in 1886 in the city of Puy (France), an equally strange incident occurred. Once in the kitchen of one of the houses, lightning damaged a stack of plates. Later it turned out that only the odd dishes were damaged - perfectly pierced, as if pierced by a bullet.
But there are stories when lightning strikes, ignoring the pattern, choose whole families as their victims, and then persecute them for many years. One example of such selective "sympathy" is an incident in 1899, when a lightning bolt took the life of an Italian in his own home. Thirty years later, his son died at the same place from a lightning strike. Many might call it a coincidence. But what happened next is striking. In that ill-fated place in 1949, the son of the second victim and the grandson of the first was also killed by a lightning strike.
Perhaps the most striking example of the selectivity of the "heavenly wanderer" was the incident with one American officer. In 1918, Major Summerford was struck by lightning, rendering him disabled. The second time he met the "intricate guest" on a fishing trip in 1924. On that day, an electric shock paralyzed the right side of the man's body. Then, in 1930, lightning again visited the poor fellow, but this time paralyzed him completely. After two years, Summerford died. But even here the lightning did not leave him alone and in 1934 hit his tombstone.
Sometimes lightning can kill an entire group of people. So, during a football match in the fall of 1998, a tragic event occurred. Congo soccer team killed by lightning. All eleven players from this team have died. However, no one from the opposing team was hurt. Some fans also received serious burns. As a result, more than thirty people were injured.
Rare and mysterious ball lightning
Ball lightning is called a rare, unique in nature phenomenon, which is a moving luminous bunch of energy up to 20 cm in size. A fireball, which sometimes can also take the form of a pear or mushroom, can move abruptly in the air and suddenly change direction, or maybe even " freeze "in one place. A similar phenomenon usually occurs in thunderstorm weather, however, cases of the appearance of ball lightning in a clear sky and even in closed rooms have been noticed. She appears as unexpectedly as she disappears. According to experts, the temperature inside the burning sphere should be up to 1000 ° C. However, eyewitnesses who met the ball lightning reported that they did not feel any heat from it. But if it explodes (which is rare), then even the metal melts around it.
As it turned out, scientists cannot fully explain the nature of ball lightning. And some even take it for a UFO. Experts recorded a case of a fireball hitting a barrel of cold water. However, upon contact with liquid, it did not explode, but boiled water. Then he disappeared. A similar story, but with a tragic end, happened in 1953 in the southwestern United States. Flying into a huge reservoir of water, the plasma sphere exploded. As a result, four people died, and several houses were badly damaged.
An equally tragic story happened with Soviet climbers in the summer of 1978 in the Caucasus. Having flown into the camp of the athletes, the fireball incinerated sleeping bags, tents and burned people. However, these were not simple burns. As the examination showed, some parts of the bodies of the victims were burned to the very bones, which baffled the doctors.
The thunderstorm, like an inexorable element, has always attracted and bewitched a person, engulfing his soul with excitement. Since today lightning, especially ball lightning, is being actively studied by scientists, the world has yet to hear many explanations for the phenomena that are associated with them.