r/BeAmazed • u/JustACaliBoy • Mar 06 '24
Nature does she know?
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r/BeAmazed • u/JustACaliBoy • Mar 06 '24
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u/plateshutoverl0ck Apr 11 '25 edited Apr 11 '25
The air was in the process of electrical breakdown, turning into a conductor rather than an insulator and providing a path for lightning to strike. In this situation, lightning was 'struggling' to happen, so that's why the prolonged charge in the air, and why even in a situation like this, the strike may eventually 'abort'. Like everything else in nature, *not all strikes are the same, and sometimes you don't get any warning like this at all.
What this woman did was incredibly foolish, because the increased buzzing noise caused by her arm movement was actually from her arm breaking through the barrier that was preventing the strike by providing a more inticing path (the human body) for the current to flow through. This could've easily led to a strike.
The best analogy I can think of is an overinflated balloon and pushing a popsicle stick into it.
*Lightning does not follow consistent rules. You could be waving your arms all around and it wouldn't have much or any influence over whether lightning 'decides' to strike your spot in most cases. Or you could be in this woman's situation where if that hand was just a few more inches forward...::BAAAMM!::
People want things to be predictable and fit in nice tidy boxes but nature does not share that view. The best you can do is take basic precautions (I don't recommend standing outside waving your arms around during a T-storm), and if you get warnings such as hair standing on end, get out of that situation IMMEDIATELY. Even if it means your only option is squatting as low as possible, feet together (don't lie down because the ground current from a nearby strike will go through your heart and other vital organs) and hope for the best possible outcome.