Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

Post by Spivak » Wed, Aug 28, 2024, 3:57 AM UTC

spdustin wrote: post #43

phoronixrly wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, why would showering in a lightning storm not be safe? Do you expect the lightning to discharge in the pipes of your house? How? Or is it that your children would be scared if the power goes out when they're showering? That I understand.

Yes, especially in older homes or homes with poor grounding. Lightning can discharge through water supply lines[0]. There are even cases of toilets exploding due to lightning strikes[1]. (Google for more) Sure, it's exceedingly rare. But it's also exceedingly easy to avoid. I've taught my kids that some decisions are easier when defined as binary rules; judgment calls in cases like this just don't offer any tangible…

Post by spdustin » Wed, Aug 28, 2024, 4:05 AM UTC

lxgr wrote: post #62

spdustin wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's exceedingly rare. But it's one of those "avoiding this activity for an hour could prevent you from dying painfully" things, so we don't shower/bathe/wash dishes when there's lightning.

> it's one of those "avoiding this activity for an hour could prevent you from dying painfully" things If you do this often enough, for extremely unlikely scenarios that don't sum up to a meaningful aggregate risk of dying, you might very well have a negative return on investment though. (Time spent worrying about an unlikely sudden death is time you don't spend enjoying life, or at least avoiding a slightly earlier…

Post by spdustin » Wed, Aug 28, 2024, 4:14 AM UTC

j_bum wrote: post #49

spdustin wrote: post #36

For my kids, I have a virtual light switch in HomeKit called "Shower Is Safe". It's pinned to the top of the Home app. I use the Home Assistant integration to fetch this data and run some calculations on the past few minutes of lightning activity. Since the API returns lightning strike time and bearing from a given location, I can (in combination with wind direction) determine if the lightning is approaching or reced…

Would you be willing to explain/share the automation for this?

    {% set distance = states('sensor.lightning_detector_lightning_distance')|int(999) %}
    {% set bearing = states('sensor.lightning_detector_lightning_azimuth')|int %}
    {% set wind_bearing = states('sensor.pirateweather_wind_bearing')|int %}
    
    {% set bearing_normalized = bearing % 360 + 360 %}
    {% set bearing_left = (wind_bearing-80) % 360 + 360 %}
    {% set bearing_right = (wind_bearing+80) % 360 + 360 %}
    {% set distance_max = 20 %}
    {% set bearing_min = ([bearing_left,bearing_right]|sort)[0] %}
    {% set bearing_max = ([bearing_left,bearing_right]|sort)[-1] %}
    {% set approaching = bearing_min