What's the Weirdest Thing You Have Ever Seen?

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Back when I was 13 or 14 years old there was a thunderstorm coming in from the west and being a dumb teenager I stayed out in the back yard and watched it come in. You could feel the electricity in the air and the hair on my arms was standing up. Lightning was striking and although there was a second or two delay to hear the thunder I could here a sizzle at the same instant I saw the lightning. Thats when I got scared and ran for the house. I later saw a PBS show about lightning that showed those streamers talked about above in post 37 and it said they were feelers that are put out to find the easiest path for the lightning bolt. I figured even though I didn't see them, that was what was making the sizzling noise around me.
I don't mess with lightning anymore.
 
A couple of friends and I went mountain climbing in the Wind River Range in Wyoming in 1969. We attempted the summit of Mt Woodrow Wilson by the West Col route, a steep, ice-floored gully running up the peak. Halfway up the Col, a blizzard struck, with thunder and lightning. The lightning was striking the peaks only about fifty feet over our hears but we were shielded in a sort of "Faraday cage" by the shape of the Col. At that distance, we could hear the "snap" of the leader discharge immediately before the main strike. Scary, though!
I'm wearing the red backpack, Mike Byorick is in the red jacket, Jim Hunter took the photo.

 
When I was a kid living in Myrtle Beach, SC we rented a house right on the beach. It was built up on pilings so that, at high tide, the water actually went up under the house. I remember sitting on the front deck in summer when a thunderstorm rolled in with lightning repeatedly striking the sea surface a few hundred yards away. There was a tremendous "bang" and a cloud of steam rose from the sea.
 
Small world. While assigned to the Cumulus Cloud Physics Branch of Cambridge Research Labratory I was tasked to develop the prototype lightning detector.
 
denoferth said:
Small world. While assigned to the Cumulus Cloud Physics Branch of Cambridge Research Labratory I was tasked to develop the prototype lightning detector.
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The Automated Weather Observation Stations at airports gives lightning direction and distance information with its reports. I have wondered how they collect that data.

Following the loss of an Atlas Centaur launched from Cape Canaveral in March 1987 a large "science project" was initiated to review lightning standards for launches. Of course as in many such things, it was designed to obscure the fact that their launch management structure was totally 'effed up, with at least three people who thought they were in charge and no central decision making. At Vandenberg we were appalled that the same kind of mistake was made that led to the loss of the Challenger Space Shuttle. But as a result of the studies the standards were toughened, which enabled them to avoid admitting that they had violated the earlier standards.
 
The early warning station on Fylingdales moor. I first saw them when I was about 8, the top of the moor is flat and barren apart from heather so you could see them from miles away. Laughably, they werent on any map for secrecy.


Another pic, they were huge and not particularly close together, they never looked "real" like something from another world.
 
Wandering over the moors? Did you ever read "Hound of the Baskervilles"?
 
manta22 said:
Wandering over the moors? Did you ever read "Hound of the Baskervilles"?
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That is Dartmoor, down south near Stonehenge they have funny ways down there . The NY Moors have over a thousand burial mounds possibly thousands more. Outside of summer the cloud frequently comes down to ground level so you are walking in fog. We used to shelter behind the burial mounds, it is the only sort of shelter there is. As well as lots of bronze age and beaker people remains there are some of the earliest Christian sites in Europe outside of Italy. The region was part of the Kingdom of Northumbria which was comparatively rich and safe after the Roman empire collapsed. Despite all this you have no feeling of anything spooky or evil, more of a benign friendly presence, most people, including visitors say the same.
 
Skunkworks developed a very quiet RPV designed to fly low, very slow with a multi sensor package - later used (for sure) over the Trail in Vietnam/Laos. It was also very quiet. IIRC it was 15-18 feet long.
 
drgondog said:
Skunkworks developed a very quiet RPV designed to fly low, very slow with a multi sensor package - later used (for sure) over the Trail in Vietnam/Laos. It was also very quiet. IIRC it was 15-18 feet long.
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Was it one of a kind? Were there anything similar but slightly larger? Merely curious.
 
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