When I was a kid, probably 4 or 5 years old, lightening struck an area only a couple feet away from me during a really bad storm. I ran to the car with my mom where she tried to calm me down. The only thing that seemed to stop me from wailing was when she told me that lightening never strikes the same spot twice. When she said that information I felt so much better thinking about how lightening wouldn’t strike where I was standing ever again. Now, a couple years later, I am still pondering if my mom was right when she said that.I decided to take matters into my own hands and do some research.
After simply typing in my question into a search engine, the answer hit me right in the face: LIGHTENING CAN DOES AND WILL STRIKE THE SAME SPOT MORE THAN ONCE. According to an articled called ” Can Lightening Strike the Same Place Twice?”, lightening is actually very likely to strike the same spot more than once. This article states ” It doesn’t have a memory, and if an object has been struck once, it is no less likely to be struck a second time.” which is true. If lightening is drawn to tall metallic items, why wouldn’t it continue to strike tall metallic items? Lightening is not a thing that has a memory or a set of rules stating that it cannot strike the same spot more than once, it is a natural phenomena that will strike anywhere that fits the bill. When lightening strikes what is really going on is the equal distribution of positive and negative charge, it doesn’t necessarily have to do with location at all. To test this hypothesis, researchers can conduct a observational procedure. During this procedure, researchers and scientists can observe different places in different parts of the world with different climates and environments. After observing what happens at all of these locations during thunder storms, a result can be able to be concluded. Scientists will be able to tell if lightening strikes twice, when it is most likely to stoke twice and where it will most likely strike twice.
Next time your caught in a storm and watch lightening strike various places, don’t take comfort like I did thinking it won’t strike there again because chances are, it probably will.
Sources:
http://www.weatherimagery.com/blog/lightning-strike-twice/
I have heard the expression “lightening does not strike twice” before and it made sense to me because I thought that the chances are low of lightening hitting the same place twice because there is many other things/places lightening can strike and lightening hitting an area once is already rare. But after reading your post, it makes much more sense that if lightening can hit something (like a large metal pole that was mentioned) it will be able to hit it again. Lightening has no limits; it can hit anything and for how ever many times. While it is comforting to hear, “lightening does not strike twice”- it is not true.
http://www.weatherimagery.com/blog/lightning-strike-twice/