Steve Okonski wrote in message ...
Raymond C Martin Jr wrote:

Copied from ne.weather to here because there really is no life in
ne.weather anymore...

You've had your share of severe and tornadic storms, Ray. Closest
I've ever lived to a tornado is a safe 8 miles, but it was an F3 so
that's good for at least some bragging rights.

Top thunderstorm wind speed I've experienced was around 75 mph, but
it's sorta a cheat since it was part of Hurricane Isabel Otherwise
the top wind speed has been about 60 mph.

Lightning has been the most memorable part. I've been within 20 feet
of a strike 3 times in my life. Closest was when the bolt struck an
object less than a foot away. Most interesting was one which struck
the ground a few feet away from the car in which I was sitting; I
happened to be looking exactly toward the strike location, so the view
was great.

Meanwhile I've had an anemometer up on a tall mast (properly grounded
and all) for about 20 years and to my knowledge it has never been hit.

Although I haven't been quite as lucky with lightning, that does
remind me of one additional event (not sure of the exact date, but I'm
pretty sure it was in between the two June 1996 storms, June 1996 was
an amazingly stormy month), where I whitnessed lightning strike a
powerpole down the road about 1/4 mile away. I still have the piece
of the ceramic fixture which flew off due to being struck, nicely
charred on the broken edge.

====
Raymond C. Martin, Jr.
Associate Meteorologist, AccuWeather Inc.- http://www.accuweather.com/
New Jersey Expressways and Tollways - http://www.njfreeways.com/
Ray's Winter Storm Archive - http://www.njfreeways.com/weather/


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