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[STORMREPORTS] Weather station at DCA struck by lightning.

From: JimTheWeatherGuy{at}aol.com
Date: Tue Aug 26 2003 - 18:38:16 EDT

Hidi-ho good neighbors. Greetings from the lightning rod of our Nations
Capital. A line of severe thunderstorms rolled through the Washington, DC area
around 5 PM tonight. Several thousand customers are without power as high winds,
small hail, and a very impressive lightning accompanied these storms.
The weather station here at Reagan National Airport (DCA) was hit directly by
lightning. The strike came at 5:25. It struck on the patio outside the
station's door. The lightning was blueish/white in color and it danced along a small
section of railing near a ground wire for one of our lightning rods. It
scared the crap out of me and the flash was so bright that I had a hard time seeing
for a second or two after the strike. The thunder clap was extremely loud
sounding as if a large gun was fired near by. This is the first time I witnessed
a direct lightning strike on the station since a bolt of lighting blew open
the doors of the station back in June of 1996.
The storm first blew through my homestead in the hills (Smithsburg, MD 2 NE).
My home station had 1/2 inch hail and a wind gust of 50 mph.
It was quite a lightning show here in DC with constant lightning strikes for
nearly 40 minutes. I guess I better start wearing my Kevlar underwear to work
if this keeps up. {:0>} Until later................
       Jim

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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