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Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

blitzortung.org

101–110 of 137 posts

Re: Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really depends on your housing situation. If you live in the lone, old house on a barren hilltop that gets struck by lightning on a weekly basis, I wouldn't take my chances with showering during the storm either.

Install this, instead of a light in the bathroom: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_rod

In a lightning strike, electricity doesn't exclusively follow the lightning rod. That's the problem.

The major part of the current will flow through the rod, but a small remainder can and will cross into the house - TV/radio/sat antennae and overhead electric/phone wires are the main culprits here, but belowground cables and water/gas/metal sewer pipes can also serve as a point of ingress.

Normally you're supposed to have proper grounding at each of these ingress points as well as surge protectors, but all it takes is for one of the grounding connections to be a tad bit loose or a SPD being expired due to prior overvoltage events, and suddenly the pipes or whatever can pose a significant enough voltage differential to the rest of the house to kill you.

And if that news isn't bad enough, most people (especially landlords) do not care too much about their electrical and other wiring in the home. Every few years you should re-tighten wire connector screws with a torque wrench to make sure the connections are still up to the spec of the manufacturer, and grounding rods need to be regularly measured as well, particularly after drought periods to make sure they haven't dried out in the time since the last check/construction.

Re: Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I learned a few months ago showering in lightning is dangerous.

You can't just say that without explaining why. I live on the 8/10 floor of a building that gets yearly lightning rod inspections. All piping has been replaced with polypropylene (clean water) or PVC (dirty) and even when it was metal, the electrical and water systems were far apart from one another. Even if they were not far apart, all wiring is underground. The transformer is inside a nearby building and also has l…

> I live on the 8/10 floor of a building that gets yearly lightning rod inspections.

That puts you in a very exclusive community. Most landlords don't bother to do anything that's not required by code/law.

Re: Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They just released a new detector so I don't think it is necessarily true that the detector system project is dead. I'm not sure how you get one of those boxes though: https://www.blitzortung.org/en/whats_new.php

I've been on waitlist for years (just checked my email - since 2014) and can't get one. I wish the whole project was more open and I could build my own from provided gerbers/BOM.

What I find the most annoying is that they don't give historic data to anyone who doesn't have a detector. But you only get a detector if you're in an area not already covered (not europe and north america for example) and even if you're in the middle of nowhere in Africa, there's years of waitlisting and the hardware costs. I gave up and built a scraper after an evening of looking into how to get a detector, but that means I only get future data of course, not a ten year history to do research on...

Re: Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

#105
If anyone needs historic data, let me know. They don't give it out if you're not a contributor, but becoming a contributor costs over a hundred euros and has a multi-decade waitlist if you're not from an area without coverage (very good coverage in Europe, of course..) so I decided not to wait for that. The data is Creative Commons so I felt it should be okay to collect for research and fun purposes

Re: Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

#106

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.

There’s no risk if your water supply lines are pex instead of copper

Yea, because water is an amazing insulator. /s

Re: Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

#107
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been on waitlist for years (just checked my email - since 2014) and can't get one. I wish the whole project was more open and I could build my own from provided gerbers/BOM.

What I find the most annoying is that they don't give historic data to anyone who doesn't have a detector. But you only get a detector if you're in an area not already covered (not europe and north america for example) and even if you're in the middle of nowhere in Africa, there's years of waitlisting and the hardware costs. I gave up and built a scraper after an evening of looking into how to get a detector, but tha…

Yup absolutely. I don't like these open-but-not-really projects, though I can sympathize a bit. Some ADS-B exchanges and GPS RTK networks are the same way.

I've toyed with the idea of building my own (no huge network needed just send ~5 units to people around where I live). The RF stuff is bit out of my league though and I can't imagine how to test it, having to wait for thunderstorms.

Re: Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s no risk if your water supply lines are pex instead of copper

Yea, because water is an amazing insulator. /s

Water is a reasonably good insulator actually. You need a lot of dissolved minerals to make it a good conductor.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dcrY59nGxBg

Re: Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even better, there is a way to avoid every risk and save water...

Let me tell you about the flesh-eating bacteria living in your sponge. You better microwave it beforehand.

I've heard in California that will cause cancer.

Re: Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smaller bathroom will resolve this to avoid total fall to the ground.

Sponge bath lying down in insulated closet is safest option

There is a chocking hazard with the sponge.
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