I heard that a couple people were convinced that lightning had struck something on or near Beaver Street in York during yesterday's thunderstorms. The city's fire department didn't know of any strikes there, but a Met-Ed spokesman said lightning hit a substation on Park Avenue around 1 p.m. Power went out for about 3,300 customers.
More thunderstorms are expected today, so there should be another light show in the sky. If you like watching lightning (as I do), you might also like to check out lightning strike data on the web. There are a couple of pay sites that you can find if you Google "lightning strike data," but here are a couple that are free:
More thunderstorms are expected today, so there should be another light show in the sky. If you like watching lightning (as I do), you might also like to check out lightning strike data on the web. There are a couple of pay sites that you can find if you Google "lightning strike data," but here are a couple that are free:
StrikeStar plots
lightning activity by region, time and density, and you can easily get
a visual representation the track of thunderstorms, like yesterday's.
It doesn't allow you to zoom in closer than "northeast region," so
it'll be almost impossible to pick out your community, but it does show
you strikes within the previous 60 minutes, so you can keep an eye on
moving storms. Strikes are color-coded based on how recent they
occurred, so that's another way to gauge activity.
Accuweather has a lightning strike map, too. It doesn't zoom in as much as even StrikeStar, but it does color-code strikes by how recent they were, and you can animate the map. That should make for interesting lightning-watching as storms move across an area.
If I've missed a good site for free lightning-tracking, leave me a comment.
Accuweather has a lightning strike map, too. It doesn't zoom in as much as even StrikeStar, but it does color-code strikes by how recent they were, and you can animate the map. That should make for interesting lightning-watching as storms move across an area.
If I've missed a good site for free lightning-tracking, leave me a comment.
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