In case you missed it, here’s video of a lightning bolt striking the Vatican hours after Pope Benedict XVI announced he was resigning – the first pope to step down in 600 years.
Wags may pronounce it a divine response to the pope’s decision. Others may consider it appropriate, since the Catholic Church has been a lightning rod on many issues.
Yes, the snow flurries and temperatures and wind chills remind us that winter is still in full force these days, but spring isn’t that far off.
One reminder of that is the arrival of the schedule for storm spotter training classes in the Wichita area. The National Weather Service has posted its schedule of storm spotter classes on its website.
The first class is Feb. 11 in Sedan and the last is April 11 in Wichita. That final session, along with meetings on April 3 in Salina and April 9 in Parsons, are advanced sessions. Those wishing to go to those talks are encouraged to attend one of the basic talks earlier in the spring.
The “basic” talk for Wichita will be held March 5 at Northwest High School.
The basic talks cover thunderstorm development, storm structure, the features to look for and where to find them. The audience is also taught how, what and when to report information.
Basic severe weather safety is covered in the presentation as well.
All classes are free and open to the public.
Bill and Pat Naylor had just settled back into bed after calming down their nervous dog when it happened.
“There was a big boom, and then it went boom again,” Pat said.
The Naylors figure the first boom was a lightning bolt striking the large cypress in their yard in northwest Wichita early Wednesday morning, and the second was the large branches hitting the ground.
“It blew both sides out of it,” Naylor said.
Valley Center storm chaser Brandon Ivey shot photos of the frequent lightning, which knocked power out at his house for a while overnight.
“I saw three separate bolts produce power flashes due to blown transformers,” Ivey said.
Westar Energy reported more than 4,000 customers were without electricity at one point during the storm.
The Naylors hope they can save their cypress, which is perhaps 30 years old. An arborist was scheduled to check the tree Wednesday afternoon.
The rain gauge at the Naylor house northwest of 13th and Tyler recorded more than 5 inches of rain, though Pat admits some of that may have been “splash” off the roof and not an accurate measure of the rainfall. But National Weather Service officials say it’s likely that more than 4 inches fell in isolated spots in the city, and reports of 3 inches were widespread.
When Ellen Bryan tells people that her adopted platform as Miss Ohio is lightning safety, they usually think it’s a joke – and then wait for her real answer.
But lightning safety is no laughing matter to Ellen, whose older sister Christina was struck and crippled by lightning on June 13, 2000. Christina, who had just finished her junior year in high school, was picking up golf bag stands on the driving range at the golf course where she worked when she was struck by lightning after a thunderstorm had seemingly ended. Her injuries from the lightning strike were so severe she is unable to walk or speak.
Photo by Valerie Carnevale
“Even without her being able to talk, you can know what she’s thinking just by looking at her eyes,” Ellen said.
Christina went on her first flight since she was injured to watch her sister compete in the Miss America pageant last month. Though Ellen didn’t win, she reveled in the experience.
“I just have been enjoying every experience” as Miss Ohio, she said.
She began competing in pageants as a student at Ball State because a professor told her it would be a good way to learn skills valuable in her intended career as a broadcast journalist.
“It’s helped me grow a lot,” she said.
Now that she’s back home, she’s back to her duties as Miss Ohio – which include promoting lightning safety and awareness.
She preaches the slogan “When lightning roars, go indoors” to anyone who will listen. If you can hear thunder, you’re within range of a lightning strike, weather officials say. It’s not safe to go back outside until a half-hour after you last hear thunder.
Ellen admits her own family didn’t take lightning very seriously until Christina was hit.
“You want to take it seriously, but you never imagine that someone you know will be struck,” she said.
Ellen has talked to more than 3,000 students, more than 100 businesses and countless civic organizations. A public service announcement on lightning safety created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration features Ellen and Christina.
It can really grate on her when she’s on a college campus and storms are threatening and students are strolling along as if nothing is going on. A thunderstorm rolled through one day when she was at Harry Potter World in Florida.
“Nobody moved,” she said. “Everybody just stayed outside. I kept running into buildings.
“It was very frustrating,” she added. “Even the parks department didn’t come on and say ‘We have a storm.’”
But word seems to be getting through somehow: Lightning deaths have plummeted to record lows in recent years.
Even though she calls the decrease “exciting,” Ellen vows to remain vigilant with her message.
“When I see people that are still out in thunderstorms, you just know your work’s not done,” she said. “You have more to do.
“There’s never going to be a cure for lightning. We’re not going to be able to stop it from coming down.”
She’ll continue to urge lightning safety and awareness once she relinquishes her crown. A 2011 graduate of Ball State, Ellen hopes to land a job as a television broadcaster soon after her Miss Ohio reign ends. One day, she said, she’d love to be an anchor on The Today Show.
No matter where her career takes her, she said, “I’ll always be drawing back on the pageant experience.”
Something else won’t change, either.
“I’ll always be talking about Christina’s story,” she said.
Her sister, she said, embodies the message “Never give up. You can take whatever life throws at you.”
Ellen set up the Lightning Safety Awareness Fund through the Mercer County Civic Foundation in Celina, Ohio. Checks should be written to the Mercer County Civic Foundation, with the memo line saying Lightning Safety and Awareness Fund.
The Mercer County Civic Foundation
119 West Fulton P.O. Box 439
Celina, Ohio 45822
Sedgwick County Emergency Management has finalized its storm spotter training class schedule for this spring. These sessions are in addition to the classes offered by the National Weather Service.
The emergency management presenters use the same course developed by the weather service. Their classes are simply more opportunities for residents who can’t make it to one of the weather service sessions.
The National Weather Service office in Wichita has released its schedule of storm spotter training classes for the region. They start next week in Sedan and continue through early April.
The classes are free and open to the public. This year’s sessions are expected to last about 90 minutes.
Additional classes will be scheduled by emergency management directors in each county, though those schedules have not yet been released.
When he’s not on duty as a meteorologist at the Dodge City branch of the National Weather Service, Mike Umscheid likes to go storm chasing. He’s captured enough tornadoes and other picturesque storms with his camera to be featured more than once in recent years in the annual weather calendar printed by Accord Publishing out of Denver.
It’s a meaty calendar, packed with climate data, articles about issues and developments related to the weather, and striking weather photography. I watch for it every year.
The 2012 calendar features Umscheid’s photo of a tornado in southern Colorado on May 31, 2010.
“Making the cover was pretty sweet,” Umscheid said. “That was a heck of a tornado.”
Umscheid gained a measure of notoriety – and a meeting with President Bush – when he issued the first-ever “tornado emergency” for Greensburg as a massive wedge-shaped twister bore down on the small Kansas town on May 4, 2007. The EF5 tornado, which was 1.7 miles wide, damaged or destroyed 95 percent of Greensburg. Eleven people were killed and at least 60 injured.
Umscheid has created his own website featuring photos shot on storm chases.
“They use a lot of storm chaser stuff” in the calendar, he said.
Indeed, Roeland Park photographer and storm chaser Stephen Locke has two lightning photos featured in the calendar – including the main January shot, taken near Salina in 2010. I’ve featured Locke on this blog in the past.
Locke’s second lightning photo featured in the calendar was taken near Sedan in southeast Kansas in 2009. It’s a vivid, compelling shot that illustrates the complexity of strong thunderstorms.
I also noticed a couple of prominently featured photographs by storm chaser Roger Hill, whom I met in 2000 while following a storm chase tour around Tornado Alley for a story. There are also photos taken by National Geographic photographer and storm chaser Mike Theiss, who I know through Wichita-based photographer and storm chaser Jim Reed.
Look for the calendar at book stores and calendar shops near you.
Yes, that was thunder you heard and lightning you saw this morning in the Wichita area.
Yes, it’s mid-December. And, yes, the projected highs in the mid-60s aren’t normal when Christmas is less than two weeks away.
But it’s been even warmer than this in mid-December before. The record high for December 14 is 70, set in 1948.
And we’ll quickly be dipping back to more seasonal temperatures on Thursday, when highs slide to the mid-40s. I’m just grateful all this badly needed moisture is falling as rain and not ice or sleet.
Another severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for Wichita, this one lasting until 5:15 p.m.
A storm capable of small hail and 70 mph winds was located northwest of Clearwater, and was moving east at 10 mph, according to the National Weather Service. Very heavy rain and frequent lightning are being reported with the storm.
Reports that a 56-year-old woman was struck by a bolt of lightning in northeast Wichita during this morning’s thunderstorm are false, authorities said.
The strike was reported at 11:18 a.m., a Sedgwick County dispatch supervisor said. The woman said the lightning came through a window at her townhouse in the 7400 block of East 32nd North. She was treated at the scene for a minor injury, the dispatch supervisor said, and refused transport to a local hospital.
“It appears there was a nearby (lightning) strike, but it did not strike the house or her,” Sedgwick County EMS Capt. Keith Maurath said.
Intense lightning was frequent as a gust front and thunderstorm rolled through the metropolitan area late in the morning. More showers and thunderstorms are possible later tonight.