Watching (and listening to) the thunderstorm just now, I couldn’t help but think how dramatic it would be if lightning struck the Golden Dome, with the Virgin Mary on top, on Easter Sunday. It didn’t happen (though there were a couple of very nearby lightning strikes, judging from the time difference between the lightning and thunder), but it got me thinking: has lightning ever struck the Dome?
It seems like it would be almost inevitable, given that the Dome is a large, tall metal object in the middle of an otherwise rather flat area. I couldn’t find anything relevant on Google, though. This article seemed promising at first, but it turns out it’s actually talking about football, not lightning. This auction is for a photo (see above) of a lightning bolt near the Dome, but not actually striking it — though it looks like a positive streamer may be rising up from the Virgin Mary statue, which is pretty cool. Anyway, I’m just wondering if any of our resident Domers know if an actual lightning strike has ever happened?
P.S. Here’s an animated GIF radar image of the thunderstorm moving through. It really peaked in intensity right over us. We’re in a lull now, but there’s plenty more where it came from. Latest radar here.
Okay, back to work now…
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Categories: Notre Dame
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April 16th, 2006 at 9:42:33 pm
Wow. Pretty nasty stuff.
Beer, milk and bread should be purchased at once.
April 16th, 2006 at 10:49:31 pm
I don’t know about the Dome, but I remember one time my junior year when lightning struck the Basilica. I happened to be right next door in Sorin at the time, and it was the loudest storm crash I’ve ever heard.
April 16th, 2006 at 11:08:08 pm
I would be concerned that Knute Rockne would come back to life.
April 17th, 2006 at 7:45:29 am
Is the dome made of a material that’s particularly conductive? (I know it’s called golden, but I don’t know the conductivity of gold, and for all I know it’s actually made of some other metal with the same color.)
April 17th, 2006 at 9:30:53 am
Gold is highly conductive. Also, air is a bad conductor and lightning manages to travel through it pretty well. Whether or not the dome has ever been hit is probably more of a factor of its height compared to surrounding buildings than what it is made of.
April 17th, 2006 at 10:06:36 am
Maybe it’s just a matter of perspective in the photo, but it looks like one of the streamers curls off the main stroke and touches the tip of the dome. It’s possible there’s enough “point” to the tip of the dome that it tends to act as a static dissipator, bleeding off the charges that would tend to attract lightning.
April 17th, 2006 at 11:24:44 am
Sean, the dome is indeed gilded with actual gold (what else would it be “gilded” with? heh), notwithstanding the USC taunt, “The golden dome is made out of brass…” :)
Bob, yeah, it does look to me like there’s a positive streamer rising up from the Virgin Mary, which didn’t happen to connect with the nearby step leader… but as you say, it could just be a matter of perspective, it’s hard to say for sure. (Irrelevant side note: I once caught a positive streamer on video, rising up from my back yard in Connecticut. But it didn’t connect, and the lightning struck a few blocks away. Very cool video, though!) As for the statis dissipator business, I don’t know nothin’ about that. :)
April 17th, 2006 at 12:59:32 pm
At the risk of being a pedant (for a change) (and Mike can correct me), I am under the impression that a lightning strike goes from planet to atmosphere rather than the other way round … it just happenes so fast that it seems to work the other way …
And, yes, Joe, I know … Another foine example that pedants are revolting ! … (grin)
April 17th, 2006 at 1:31:04 pm
brendan! if my calculations are correct, a bolt of lightning is going to strike the golden dome at precisely 10:04pm, next saturday night! if we can somehow harness this lightning, channel it into the flux capacitor, all 1.21 jiggawatts, and as long as you hit that wire with the connecting hook at precisely 88mph the instant the lightning strikes… we will finally send you back to the future!
April 17th, 2006 at 1:32:21 pm
um, but you need to tell Mike Tran to leave the sports almanac with me…
April 17th, 2006 at 2:51:24 pm
Per Jar Jar, I present the new Dean of Sciences at Notre Dame…
http://www.propstore.com/images/products/324/bttf-thedocshirtdisplay-dvd3.jpg
April 17th, 2006 at 4:49:21 pm
Most often, lightning strikes work in both directions, depending on how you define the lightning bolt. Generally, lightning bolts begin by a negative charge stepped ladder–which is invisible–travelling from a negatively charged cloud (end) to a positively charged one, or to the positively charged ground. Simultaneously, a positive streamer from the positively charged end of the strike is sent out, and the two connect. This greatly increases the electrical current, and as it travels primarily back up the negatively charged stepped ladder, the visible portion of the strike propagates up from the ground, even though the electrical current is basically travelling from cloud to ground–strike survivors have very different burn patterns at the two ends of the path the electricity takes through their body, often with much more severe exit wounds on the feet than entry wounds on the upper body. Of course, it also happens that strikes are known to shuttle back and forth across the same electrical connection multiple times before the connection is broken. This negative lightning is what more than 95% of lightning bolts are, but in the other cases the polarities are reversed, and though rarer tend to be substantially more powerful.
For more info, I’d suggest the Wikipedia entry
April 17th, 2006 at 5:09:03 pm
Mike - my working definition of the lightning strike is the visible lightning “bolt” … and it’s good to get the re-confirmation that some of the synapses remain connected …
Now, just what were we talking about, eh, sonny-boy ?
(grin)
April 17th, 2006 at 9:34:01 pm
Reggie Bush? Hello?
April 18th, 2006 at 9:48:38 am
Mike-
Thank you Dr. Science.
April 18th, 2006 at 4:32:59 pm
Yeah, I can’t believe they didn’t call that. He TOTALLY pushed Leinart into the end zone. What crap.
April 18th, 2006 at 4:42:31 pm
Oh no, not this again… sigh…