Lightning

A wind turbine has been left smouldering off the Wicklow coast after being struck by lightning as thunderstorms hit Ireland.

Saturday’s rain in north-western areas will gradually clear during the day with most areas getting some dry and bright weather, breezy with highs of 14C to 17C. Once weather conditions permit and we can access the site safely, we will start working to determine the root cause of this event.” This is especially important on high-speed roads such as dual carriageways and motorways where there is increased danger of aquaplaning.” Flooded roads that appear shallow could be deeper than you think. “If the road ahead is flooded choose another route: do not attempt to drive through it. The Coast Guard has been notified.

Many parts of the county have been left without power following a dramatic thunderstorm today. Flash flooding was also reported throughout the county.

MET Eireann updated a Status Rain Orange Alert before noon today which read “Very heavy rain with embedded thunderstorms today (Wednesday) and tonight with the possibility of intense downpours, will lead to localised flooding. Smoke could be seen off the Arklow coast where a wind turbine went ablaze. Many parts of the county have been left without power following a dramatic thunderstorm today.

A wind turbine located approximately 10km off the coast of Arklow caught fire after being struck by lightning earlier today.

It has been reported that the owners/operators of the turbine, GE Energy, resolved to let the fire run its course. A spokesperson for the Irish Coast Guard confirmed that they had responded to reports of the fire, which began to circulate at approximately 12.30p.m. A wind turbine located approximately 10km off the coast of Arklow caught fire after being struck by lightning earlier today.

In a turn of events, smoke could be seen off the Wicklow coast where a wind turbine went alight, as Met Eireann updated a Status Rain Orange Alert before ...

A turbine of Wicklow was seemingly hit by lightning and could be seen with smoke billowing from it at lunchtime. Tonight bands of showers will continue to track up over the north of the country early in the night with a continued risk of localised flooding. “Sadly one of the offshore wind turbines off the Arklow coast appears to have been struck by lightning with smoke billowing from it.” The company are dealing with the incident and the Coast Guard have issued a Radio Navigation Warning to alert vessels in the area.” “There were no personnel in the vicinity of the turbine so no risk to life. A member of the public was able to take a photograph of the burning turbine.

Dramatic images showing a wind turbine on fire off the Wicklow coast have been shared on social media after lightning strikes and thunder across the ...

Dramatic images showing a wind turbine on fire off the Wicklow coast have been shared on social media after lightning strikes and thunder across the country. The fire is said to have now been extinguished, although the turbine is still smouldering Wind turbine goes on fire off Wicklow coast after lightning strike

So what happens when a big storm rolls in? The lightning you see is the discharge of electricity that travels between clouds or to the ground. The thunder you ...

You see the batter hit the ball a second before you hear the crack of the bat. If you're really close to the lightning, you will see it and hear the thunder simultaneously. Thunder can be heard up to 25 miles away, and lightning strikes have been documented to occur as far as 25 miles from thunderstorms – known as a " [bolt from the blue](https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/lightning/faq/)." The thunder you hear is the rapid expansion of the air in response to the lightning's intense heat. But when it's far away, you see and hear the event at different times. You see the flash of lightning – and you immediately start counting the seconds till it thunders.

Most people are familiar with basic thunderstorm safety, but did you know you should avoid taking a shower, a bath or washing the dishes?

Thunderstorms usually like to save a big one for the end, and you don't want to end up part of the fireworks! But if lightning strikes your house, the electricity would follow the path of least resistance to the ground. Also avoid using anything plugged into an electrical outlet (computers, TVs, washing machines, dishwashers) as all of these can provide pathways for the lightning strike to take. The thunderstorm wants to balance its charges, and it does this by discharging between positive and negative regions. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. The rising water drops collide with the falling ice drops, passing them a negative charge and leaving themselves with a positive charge.

The methods engineers use to test that aircraft can withstand lightning strikes is changing as their aerospace materials and designs evolve.

In other words, there are no lightning currents flowing near the structure or spacecraft being protected, whereas the aircraft’s lightning protection system is “something that the aircraft has to carry with it, for instance, metal mesh on the outside of the composite”. There is a focus in using computer-aided design files that describe the aircraft to ensure that the simulation corresponds to the actual drawings used to build the aircraft,” he says. By doing both testing and simulation at a high level and correlating the results of each in an organized way, engineers actually learn more about how lightning interacts with aircraft than if they were limited to either simulation or testing.” “This requires a whole aircraft test, where low levels of lightning are injected into a full aircraft, and the resulting currents and voltages are physically measured at the inputs of the critical avionic systems. In terms of avionics testing for indirect effects, Morgan explains that different waveforms replicating the threat in an aircraft are injected into the avionics system to see if it causes damage or upsets/failures. “For Part 25 aircraft, multiple layers of protection are used and, when tested, several of the layers are purposefully disabled so that the design can be shown to be safe even in combination with faults and failures. Tanks tests are also conducted in an enclosure that is filled with a diagnostic gas replicating fuel vapour, which will detonate in the event of sparking or outgassing. This often means providing multiple conductive paths, so that the current can be divided and the amount of current each part and component takes is reduced. “Fairings are often tested in a similar way to structure, though sometimes puncture is acceptable, but only if the high current arc doesn’t attach to the underlying avionics – in which case, a full-scale test is performed with the fairing and simulated structure underneath. This is complicated by the fact the paint on top of the metallization affects its performance, so it can be challenging to protect CFRP that also has thick layers of paint. Commercial aircraft are struck by lightning approximately once every 3,000 flight hours, equating to around once per year, and strikes could potentially lead to the loss of an aircraft if it is not properly designed. Still, designers have done a tremendous amount of research, development and testing to make composite aircraft as safe as aluminum during a lightning strike,” says McVenes.