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Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

blitzortung.org

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Re: Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

#91

Post by helb »

hkmaxpro wrote: post #57

What is that South American flag? Is it a map of South American nations, like the globe for the “Overview Map”? I can recognize all other flags: EU, Australia, US (sorry Canada), Hong Kong, African Union, but not South America. Hong Kong flag for Asia is why the flags caught my attention :)

Looks like it was some proposal for an UNASUR flag, but they chose the blue one:

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_South_Amer...

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_UNASUR.svg

Re: Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

#92

Post by netsharc »

sva_ wrote: post #33
lightningshz wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Nuclear detonations are generally realized to be strong sources of coherent electromagnetic radiation (the elec- tromagnetic pulse) within the very low and low-frequency (VLF and LF) radio bands (3-300 kHz) [US. Department of Defense. 1962. pp. 502-506)." ... " The network consists of more than 500 lightning receivers and some central processing servers. The sources of the signals we locate are in general lightning…

Perhaps we could write some unit tests that detonate a few nukes to make sure it works

Hah, good plot for an "AI gone rogue" story... task an AI to code a nuclear launch detector, making sure to be a clean coder. It decides to do an integration test.

The twist would be it'd be the 100th nuclear launch, everyone on the planet is already dead and it's just the AI "alive" in a bunker under some mountain.

Re: Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

#93

Post by lucioperca »

readyplayernull wrote: post #85
purplerabbit wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sponge bath lying down in insulated closet is safest option

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.

Re: Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

#94

Post by lucioperca »

spdustin wrote: post #72
lxgr wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, I wonder if you might be teaching a bad lesson about neglect of probability [1] here. The shower itself is probably orders of magnitude more dangerous by itself. I'm wondering because I am also unsure myself if I should be concerned about lightning when showering, or whether it's statistically speaking an absolute waste of time :) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neglect_of_probability

The difference in expected utility from showering (either during a lightning storm or not) is minimally affected by the choice to postpone it. That's why I'm content to call it a binary rule. The choice of showering/bathing at all has a different risk profile, yes, and also a different expected utility. Comparing the two is a false equivalence. Statistically speaking: our kids (and their parents) simply enjoy watchin…

You could improve the grounding instead of spending time making such a light.

Re: Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

#95

Post by lucioperca »

KeplerBoy wrote: post #84
lxgr wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, I wonder if you might be teaching a bad lesson about neglect of probability [1] here. The shower itself is probably orders of magnitude more dangerous by itself. I'm wondering because I am also unsure myself if I should be concerned about lightning when showering, or whether it's statistically speaking an absolute waste of time :) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neglect_of_probability

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

Re: Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

#96

Post by wickedsight »

sadcherry wrote: post #90
spdustin wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference in expected utility from showering (either during a lightning storm or not) is minimally affected by the choice to postpone it. That's why I'm content to call it a binary rule. The choice of showering/bathing at all has a different risk profile, yes, and also a different expected utility. Comparing the two is a false equivalence. Statistically speaking: our kids (and their parents) simply enjoy watchin…

Do you have any statistics about lightning-related injuries or deaths in showers?

I had to look it up, because this seems like a pretty unrealistic fear to me. What I fond:

> less than 1 in 1 million chance of being struck by lightning directly or indirectly

> One-third of all lightning injuries occur indoors.

I'm pretty terrible at statistics, but I think we can assume that there's a less than 1 in 3 million chance to be injured by lightning indoors.

But lightning related injuries indoors could also be from a window exploding after lightning hits a tree outside, or a fire related injury from a lightning strike to the house.

So what's the chance of being hit by lightning in the shower? And then being seriously injured?

Snopes lists 4 examples of people being hit by lightning in the shower, spread over 20 years. All of them with minor injuries. The chance of major injuries is also much lower than with a direct lightning strike.

So finally, is the 'safe to shower' thing useful? I'd say that making this is probably time that could've been spent on more useful safety related things.

Also, if it's just 'is it safe to shower?', it ignores tons of other dangers inside the house during thunder storms. Touching any tap, corded appliance, concrete wall or floor or being near an outlet is just as dangerous as being in the shower and none of those things are particularly dangerous in the grand scheme of things!

Re: Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

#97

Post by danbruc »

sadcherry wrote: post #90
spdustin wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference in expected utility from showering (either during a lightning storm or not) is minimally affected by the choice to postpone it. That's why I'm content to call it a binary rule. The choice of showering/bathing at all has a different risk profile, yes, and also a different expected utility. Comparing the two is a false equivalence. Statistically speaking: our kids (and their parents) simply enjoy watchin…

Do you have any statistics about lightning-related injuries or deaths in showers?

This [1] is the best I could find with a quick search, admittedly far from ideal, but it has some numbers to start with and might help to locate better data.

[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/it-safe-take-show...

Re: Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

#98

Post by imp0cat »

kzrdude wrote: post #86
Dibby053 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to frighten your family more, but shower NEVER is safe. Unlike lightning, slips and falls in the bathroom are quite common and sometimes result in death or lifelong injury.

I would guess the kind where you shower standing in a bathtub are much more risky than just a plain flat floor shower?

IKEA Patrull (the green crocodille bathtub mat) is the easiest solution.

Re: Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

#99

Post by imp0cat »

lucioperca wrote: post #94
spdustin wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference in expected utility from showering (either during a lightning storm or not) is minimally affected by the choice to postpone it. That's why I'm content to call it a binary rule. The choice of showering/bathing at all has a different risk profile, yes, and also a different expected utility. Comparing the two is a false equivalence. Statistically speaking: our kids (and their parents) simply enjoy watchin…

You could improve the grounding instead of spending time making such a light.

That is easier said than done, especially in an old house.

Re: Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world

#100

Post by atoav »

phoronixrly wrote: post #38
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…

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.

Lightning strikes can induce significant current flows within all conducting parts of a building. This is obviously worse with parts that are not (or not well) grounded.

Basically without a lightning protection system you could stand next to a power outlet and a spark could bridge over to you and flow into the ground (there are slomo videos of such things happening in specific tests that have been conducted).

I think the shower warning app is a bit overkill. If your place is that frequently hit by lightning strikes I'd install a proper lightning protection system with a narrow mesh width and surge protection devices in all sections of the house. Yeah and ground that shower.

The hardest part about retrofitting such a system is getting a decent/low impedance ground connection. Ideally you'd embedded a steel mesh into the fundament and connect it to the lightning protection system on all sides. This is kinda hard if a house is already there, so digging deep on the sides of the house and trying to get connections under it (if possible) is the next alternative.

In any case make sure that ground impedance is actually measured..

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