# Holy crimeny, we're having an electrical storm!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crimeny-were-having-an-electrical-storm/197710
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [August 26, 2003, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crimeny-were-having-an-electrical-storm/197710 "2003-08-26T10:21:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2003, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crimeny-were-having-an-electrical-storm/197710/1 "2003-08-26T10:21:21Z")
Saw a bright flash in the sky, just on the edge of my vision. Lightning? Couldn’t be. Not out here, in LA.
Few seconds later, rrrrrummmbbbbbbble…
An electrical storm! Woohoo! Only regret is, I won’t be able to watch, the way I could back east, because there’s no way to get a good view of the sky in my community, and even if I could, it would, strictly speaking, be a view of smog.
And there it goes again!
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### Author:  [@zuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zuma)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2003, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crimeny-were-having-an-electrical-storm/197710/2 "2003-08-26T12:40:30Z")
I bet our electrical storm beat the pants off your electrical storm, Rilchiam! Here in the bay area, there were HUGE lightning bolts every couple of seconds. I’ve rarely seen such a show here. I wasn’t aware the same unusual phenomena was happening in LA… Up here things went wild from about 12-2 a.m.
Yes, rest of the country, I know we’re mere children when it comes to electrical storms, but we only get to see them once a year or so, if we’re lucky. And rarely as spectacularly as we saw them last night 🙂
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### Author:  [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2003, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crimeny-were-having-an-electrical-storm/197710/3 "2003-08-26T13:33:02Z")
I remember, after moving to LA from central Texas, seeing the local news put up a map of lightning strikes in the past year. I about laughed my ass off; if they’d done that in Texas, the whole map would have been one glowing white thing, not a separate dot to be seen!
But…I don’t like storms, and we get them here a lot, and I do miss not getting them.
If they only happened a couple of times a year, I WOULD enjoy them!
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### Author:  [@Cowgirl\_Jules](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowgirl_Jules)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crimeny-were-having-an-electrical-storm/197710/4 "2003-08-26T16:11:46Z")
It went through Central CA about 3 or 4 this morning. I lay awake and watched it for a long time. There were some strikes that sounded like they were right above the house, and the power blipped a few times. I could see lightning flashes every couple of seconds, but I thought it was weird that I couldn’t hear the thunder very often. Is that normal in a storm like that?
And I found one of my dogs out front hiding under the truck this morning - I didn’t know it bothered him, but this was pretty extreme for around here. He must have jumped the fence, but I think it would have been the back one, so he had to come around the block to come home.
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### Author:  [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2003, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crimeny-were-having-an-electrical-storm/197710/5 "2003-08-26T16:27:47Z")
Huh. I understand they don’t have electrical storms on the West Coast very often. Growing up in Victoria BC, **Hamish** only saw one once.
Here in Montreal, they happen every few weeks or so in the summer. I love 'm.
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### Author:  [@\_Deep\_F\_ied](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Deep_F_ied)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2003, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crimeny-were-having-an-electrical-storm/197710/6 "2003-08-26T16:47:03Z")
Yep, that was a cool light show we got last night here in the south bay area!
Of course now I am exhausted from staying up so late to watch. Oh well, it was worth it!
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2003, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crimeny-were-having-an-electrical-storm/197710/7 "2003-08-26T16:48:18Z")
That was the biggest storm I’ve seen in 7 years in the Bay Area. I would have liked it more but my stupid dog was up until 3 am barking at the lightning.
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### Author:  [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2003, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crimeny-were-having-an-electrical-storm/197710/8 "2003-08-26T18:31:42Z")
I must admit I never considered that other parts of the country don’t experience storms like we do here. Does it have to do with temperature?
We had one last night too, but I was able to sleep through most of it.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2003, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crimeny-were-having-an-electrical-storm/197710/9 "2003-08-27T00:21:15Z")
Hm. I slept through it.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2003, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crimeny-were-having-an-electrical-storm/197710/10 "2003-08-27T00:36:02Z")
Um, should one really be online during a storm? (I always shut down my computer)
I love thunder/lightening storms, though. My dad and I go out on the front porch and watch-which freaks my mom out.
Of course, we get plenty here in Western PA.
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### Author:  [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2003, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-crimeny-were-having-an-electrical-storm/197710/11 "2003-08-27T01:30:41Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by bowert \*
> **It went through Central CA about 3 or 4 this morning. I lay awake and watched it for a long time. There were some strikes that sounded like they were right above the house, and the power blipped a few times. I could see lightning flashes every couple of seconds, but I thought it was weird that I couldn’t hear the thunder very often. Is that normal in a storm like that?**
The lack of thunder was very surreal. I saw bolts hitting no more than a couple miles from my house, so the thunder should have been pretty loud, but… nothing.