Posted on 06/22/2007 2:33:21 AM PDT by jsh3180
A Dade landscaper died after being struck by an unusual type of lightning that's stronger, hotter, lasts longer and strikes from clear skies. By TERE FIGUERAS NEGRETE AND LUISA YANEZ
With no rain or even clouds to warn him of the danger, death came literally out of the blue Thursday to a self-employed landscaper. The killer was a powerful bolt of lightning that cracked through perfectly clear skies.
David Canales, 41, of West Miami-Dade, was on the job at a Pinecrest home when the bolt hit. It first seared a tree, then traveled and struck Canales, standing nearby.
Experts said Canales was killed by a weather phenomenon fittingly called a ''bolt from the blue'' or ''dry lightning'' because it falls from clear, blue skies. He was pronounced dead at South Miami Hospital.
Canales is the latest victim of one of Florida's least enviable honors: It's the country's lightning capital. Five of the 47 people killed by lightning across the country last year were in Florida.
Dan Dixon, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami, said that when Canales was hit, a typical afternoon storm was forming but nowhere near the area.
Weather data showed that lightning activity picked up north of Pinecrest shortly before 1 p.m., as a storm gathered momentum and swept through Coral Gables and then downtown.
''Most lightning will come from the base of a thunderstorm, inside that rain-shaft area,'' Dixon explained. ``But occasionally, what we call a bolt from the blue comes out of a thunderstorm still several miles away.''
The fair-weather bolts pack a bigger, deadlier punch and form differently.
Most lightning bolts carry a negative charge, but ''bolts from the blue'' have a positive charge, carry as much as 10 times the current, are hotter and last longer.
The bolts normally travel horizontally away from the storm and reach farther than typical lightning, then curve to the ground. This bolt struck the front yard of a home at 10500 SW 62nd Ave.
''My wife said the sky was blue, but the lightning bolt was the most horrible sound she had heard in her life,'' said Clemente Vazquez-Bello, owner of the home where Canales and two workers had come to do landscaping.
Startled by the violent sound, Margarita Vazquez-Bello ran to the backyard. The men were not there. Canales' workers were knocking on the front door, seeking help.
She dialed 911. Officers with the Village of Pinecrest and Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue arrived at the home. But Canales was in grave condition when transported, said rescue spokesman Lt. Elkin Sierra.
The Vazquez-Bellos rushed to South Miami Hospital, where Canales was pronounced dead. Canales' wife, also at the hospital, could not be reached for comment.
Vazquez-Bello said Canales was ''a wonderful human being'' and a dependable hard worker.
''We feel terrible about this,'' said Vazquez-Bello, a Miami attorney.
Dixon said protecting yourself from such unexpected lightning is difficult.
''They are very unpredictable and very dangerous. We urge people to stay indoors even if you hear thunder only faintly in the distance,'' Dixon said. ``If you're close enough to hear thunder, you're close enough to be struck by lightning.''
Earlier this month, a worker was hospitalized after being struck at a construction site in Miami. Nine people, including three children, were forced out of their Plantation home after a lightning strike caused a fire.
There has been at least one fatality in South Florida this year: A person on a roof in Miramar was killed by lightning May 19, Dixon said.
It's not the first time in South Florida ''bolts from the blue'' have proven deadly.
In August 1988, a Norwegian couple vacationing in South Florida were struck while standing on a Fort Lauderdale beach. Witnesses said the sky was cloudless.
That sucks.
When I was 18 or so, I was laying on my back underneath a Combine working on it. The grain head was in the raised position, so the entire (huge) machine was isolated from earth ground by the tires. I was lying on the ground and touching the machine as I was working on it. Wasn’t a cloud in the sky or noise of any kind when and I got a serious shock. Didn’t kill me obviously, but I am pretty sure I discarded those undies. All I can figure is that huge machine acted like an antenna and grounded a bunch of static out of the atmosphere.
Overhead high voltage power lines can also induce large voltages in objects beneath.
Hurricane season started 2-3 weeks ago. On the first day we had a huge thunderstorm. We have had thunderstoms every couple of days now. Just last week I was walking to my car and a new thunderstorm was coming and I just had a “funny feeling” and I high-tialed it indoors thinking something like this may happen.
Saw this in 1980. It was a clear sky, sunny day and I was in the basement starting to walk out with a 5’ long steel prybar to tear out the old fence posts on the hill above the house that was struck.
I changed some of my habits that very day.
And what is the purpose of wanting a comment from a woman whose husband was just killed? These journalists are such morons.
We get that type of lightning here in Houston. We call it “heat lightning.” Happens every year in August and September.
His last words were “Viva La Raza!”
Now that’s a positive comment!
This bolt from the blue phenom...can we nominate recipients for this “reward”?
I have a few in mind...bet most of the rest of you do, too!
If the positive potential is above, wouldn’t current flow be from the ground, rather than to it as described by the article?
Twas a great movie.
No need to bring race into this....
Was Rudy Giuliani around?
There weren't any power lines around, in fact, it the machine was broke down in the middle of the field. I have experienced what you describe though. If you walk under a really high voltage line, the hair on your arm will stand up. Very creepy feeling.
You better be positive because no one's gonna insulate you from that comment.....
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