Yesterday a Sarasota man was killed standing alongside his friend at his friend's house in Bradenton. According to his friend who was knocked down but survived without damage, they were standing there talking, noticed a storm away on the horizon, and BAM. He stated they were not even thinking about it going to rain, the storm was miles away.

On the newscast tonight as an afterthought to the story, it was stated that lightning strike can precede a storm by as much as six miles. In other words it can "come clear out of the blue".

Last year a woman was killed on Turtle Beach by lightning and the storm was five miles away by all estimates.

Something to think about when you see it start to "snap, crackle, and pop" when you're on the water.

When your time is up.....your time is up.......

Thats so sad and scary. We were boating today and lightning was off in the distance. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

Lightning is nothing to fool with.
My house has been hit four times over a five year period.

One of the storms we had one day last week generated over 50,000 strikes.
That's why Florida is the lightning capitol of the world.

Found thin on the NOAA site:
How long can a lightning bolt be?
Recent research from Vaisala-GAI's LDAR and LDAR II lightning detection networks show that lightning can travel 60 miles or more. They find the longest bolts originate in the front of a squall line and travel 62 miles horizontally back into the trailing stratiform region behind the squall line. The longest bolt they have seen to date was 118 miles long in the Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX area. Since 3-D lightning measurements are relatively new, however, scientists are learning more every day and these numbers may change.

I can watch the news to see unfortunate stuff like that. Why post it here?

Are'nt you the same guy that posted on the death of a 32 year old Father and his 7 year old son that was missing in a boating accident. What's your deal. If you don't like whats on OSO, flip to a different thread, instead of being inhuman. This is how we learn from what has unfortunately happened to others, lightning is not to be fooled with, but then again you must know so much more than us all, grow up. Jeff Jassby

I think that it is important to post things of this nature to bring to our attention dangers that we might not be aware of. I knew that lightning could strike well in front of a storm but how many others do. If you can hear the thunder, you are in range. Thunderstorms happen where we boat, outdoors and when we boat, in the summer. A little more knowledge could help to provide us with a few more boating seasons than we would have had otherwise....Thanks for posting the article.

Were you talking to me Jeff?