LIGHTNING STORM !

What a view of our electrical storm!
There were more than 1000 bolts of lightning in the space of an hour and it seemed as if it was right above us!
Sophia slept right through it - none of the rest of us did...
I didn't realise that lightning kills more people than hurricanes or tornadoes.

At any moment, right now, there are 2,000 lightning storms around the world.
There are some 16 million lightning storms in the world every year occur on average 44 ± 5 times a second, for a total of nearly 1.4 billion flashes per year!!



The flash lightning storm that has caused me to realise all these things, has brought down trees, powerlines and lifted roofs across the Auckland. But it was the electrical display that was so amazing and terrifying.



Much of the damage caused here missed us and was a result of a thunderburst which produced all the forked lightning.

You do know, don't you, that your chances today of being struck by lightning is approx 1 in 600,000 (better odds than winning the lottery).



And then there's..the place where lightning occurs most often- the small village of Kifuka in the Congo,(I'm so not going there!)On average it receives 158 lightning strikes per square kilometre a year.



Singapore has one of the highest rates of lightning activity in the world.. and I have been there!

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A 61-year-old man and his horse were killed instantly yesterday when they were struck by the lightning during their annual hare hunt, near Dargaville.
Some schools were evacuated, boats were pulled from the their moorings, trees fell on homes and cars and surface flooding blocked Highways in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty. I told you - it was "awesome".



This week's downpour of rain, following the lightning bolts,is expected to be about half the size of Cyclone Bola which hit eastern parts of the North Island in March 1988 ! Told you we were having weird weather!