The otherwise peaceful Sunday took a shocking turn when lightning struck the pipe of the family at Bønes in Bergen. – I snapped, says Erik Nilsson Sætveit to news. He was sitting in the basement when lightning struck the pipe on the house. Nilson Sætveit adds that he is relatively skittish in the first place. – I only heard a “BANG”, and there was also that lightning strike, says the 13-year-old. He describes the sound as quite similar to a “flashbang” from the game Call of Duty. Erik Nilsson Sætveit jumped when lightning struck the house. Photo: Alrik Velsvik / news Sprinting out of the house Staying inside the house was not an option for Erik. – Being the person I am, I of course chose to sprint out of the house, because I didn’t intend to get burned. He escaped the horror, because even though there was a burning smell, there were no signs of a fire in the house. Erik then sprinted out to see if his siblings were doing well. They discovered that the power had gone out, and pulled out all the sockets. When there was a burning smell in the house, Erik took a fire extinguisher, and the three siblings went around the house to check if there had been a fire. Then they discovered that the glass on the fireplace was broken. Facts about lightning in Norway There is little lightning in Norway: There are around 44 lightning strikes every minute worldwide, but lightning strikes are unevenly distributed. 70% of the world’s lightning occurs in the tropics. The North and South Poles are the areas with the least amount of lightning. In Norway, many lightning strikes the ground: Lightning can travel between clouds or between cloud and ground. The global average is 25:75. In the tropics, a large proportion of lightning strikes between clouds (90:10), while in Norway there are equal numbers of each type (50:50). The reason is that the electric area in the clouds in Norway is closer to the ground compared to in the tropics. In the tropics, the air is warmer. Thus, water will freeze to ice higher up, and it is the process where droplets freeze to ice that creates the charge differences inside the cloud. Most lightning in the summer: Summer is the peak season for lightning in Norway, and then Eastern Norway is most exposed. In winter, it is the coastal strip in the west and north that gets the most lightning. There could be more lightning in the future: A warmer climate could provide fertile ground for thunderstorms. A study from the Meteorological Institute shows a probable increase of 25 per cent for the whole country until 2050, and the increase will continue until 2100. Lightning is a giant spark that occurs when the air is unable to keep positive and negative electrical charges apart. Thunder: Occurs when the air around the lightning is heated up within a short time (30,000 degrees Celsius). The air expands and creates a shock wave that moves outwards in all directions. A lightning strike can be several kilometers long and the sound will therefore reach you at different times. Source: Meteorological Institute, Yr and Wikipedia No one was injured Mother and father in the house were in Hageland when the lightning struck the house. The father in the house, Jonatan Nilsson, called the fire brigade and returned home when the children called. The fire brigade examined the living room with a heat-seeking camera. Photo: Alrik Velsvik / news – Did you imagine that something like this could happen here? – I have heard of others who have been struck by lightning in their house on Bønes, but I did not expect it to happen in my house, says Nilsson. There was a lot of broken glass in the living room, and there was a burning smell. They aired as much as possible. The fire brigade was quickly on the scene, and searched through the house. – We have checked the temperature in the house, but no high temperatures have been measured, says duty commander at 110 West, Jan Ove Haga. There was a lot of torrential rain in western Norway late Saturday and early Sunday, and thunderstorms were reported. According to the Meteorological Institute, there were 109 lightning strikes in old Hordaland on Sunday. This is the only thing that is recorded to have crashed into a house.
ttn-69
– I only heard “BANG” – news Vestland
