Lightning Strike or Fake? Investigating a Viral Video

[Ivan Seeking]

Does this add up? On one hand, the dog seems to react as if nearly hit by lightning. It looks to me like he leaps, or makes an odd move, just after the lightning is seen. What bothers me is the delay for the sound. It seems to me that we have something close to a half-second delay, when the strike appears to be only thirty feet away or so. Perhaps the strike seen is not the strike heard? Or, could this be an artifact of the video recorder? Am I missing something and this is an obvious fake?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qBJ-8eTqnM

 

[mgb_phys]

A nearby strike induces a ground current.
If you have legs at the front and the back there is a potential difference between them - I'm not a quadraped but that can't be pleasant.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

A nearby strike induces a ground current.
If you have legs at the front and the back there is a potential difference between them - I'm not a quadraped but that can't be pleasant.

Yes, I have read that one should try to squat while balancing on one foot. Now the immediate objection comes to mind that one could easily fall over, but it makes sense electrically.

This assumes that you feel the high potential indicating that you are being targeted. I think the feeling of your hair wanting to stand on end is the only obvious clue that this is happening - good to know if caught outside in a bad lightning storm. It appears that the dog may have sensed this and started to run; or did someone throw something?

 

[zomgwtf]

I don't for some reason my bs alarm is going off with this one. The lightning looks somewhat editted in. Lightening is pretty freaking bright and this video in my opinion didn't capture that.

It looks like those lightning graphics that you see on RPG games.

Check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ0_Lwa4H2g
you can see it's much brighter than the lightning in the video. this is just my opinioin mind you.

EDIT: As well wouldn't the lightning hit in a closer area? All strikes I've seen on the ground this one would have to have the widest strike area on the ground.

++Wouldn't there be some sort of remenants on the ground? It happens if lightning hits sand... and if lightning hits a tree it will break the tree I've seen it.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I guess it is possible that we are seeing a failed leader, with the main strike nearby [400 feet or so?]. That might explain why it is so faint. One would expect the brighness of the strike to saturate the frame; and perhaps cause the camera to start seeking a new light level.

 

[DaveC426913]

Lightening is pretty freaking bright and this video in my opinion didn't capture that.

He's got a point. Lightning at point-blank range should have been so bright as to practically blow out human vision, let alone the CCD in the camcorder.

 

[Mu naught]

It might be possible that you're seeing a reflection of a slightly more distant lightning strike, perhaps off of the puddle of water below the camera. This would explain the delay in sound and why the dog seems unaffected, and why it appears so dim. Or it could be fake.

 

[Hepth]

It probably a hoax/edited.

you can hear the guy say "ohp, do it now" right as a mild flash occurs.
1. They see the lightning far off flash
2. They count to the right time
3. They throw a ball or something
4. Dog runs out and gets scared.
5. Everyone laughs. >> Goto "1" for a few times.
6. Someone sees the video and thinks it'd be funny to put in some fake lightning effects right when the thunder reaches the camera.
7. Someone posts it to PF :)

 

[chuck654]

I don't believe this vid with the dog is a real "almost hit", a real lightning hit would have done more than that. Check this vid, was in the german news http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpxKEGdfDxI&feature=related

 

[Borg]

The fact that the dog wasn't killed or the camera blinded doesn't prove the video is fake. It is very possible as Ivan said that it could have been a failed leader.

[URL]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Leaderlightnig.gif[/URL]

 

[russ_watters]

I guess it is possible that we are seeing a failed leader, with the main strike nearby [400 feet or so?]. That might explain why it is so faint. One would expect the brighness of the strike to saturate the frame; and perhaps cause the camera to start seeking a new light level.

For the reasons you list, I'm more inclined to believe the "failed leader" hypothesis (though I'm not completely clear on the science of that...) than a hoax. If it were really a hoax purporting to be of a full lightning strike it would look more like a full lightning strike.

 

[leroyjenkens]

Lightning isn't always extremely bright. I was looking at my friend's van as it was hit by a lightning bolt 20 or so feet away while I was standing on his porch. It hurt my ears, but I don't remember it being that bright.
The delay of the lightning and the sound could just be a delay in the sound on the video. We don't know the sound is perfectly in sync to begin with.
But the lightning just doesn't look right. It's extremely faint, like it's a reflection off of a window. And it doesn't seem to strike one thing, it has several branches.
I think it may have been a far away lightning strike and the camera, for some reason, made it look like it hit in the backyard.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Failed step leaders

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI8loy3j_aQ

This was a close call!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCrUHDtHGuc

Woohoo!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjZnwp6X1_s

 

[flatmaster]

It might be possible that you're seeing a reflection of a slightly more distant lightning strike, perhaps off of the puddle of water below the camera. This would explain the delay in sound and why the dog seems unaffected, and why it appears so dim. Or it could be fake.

I don't think it's a failed leader. If it was a failed leader, wouldn't there be a single strike rather than two or three?

This explanation sounds most likely to me. I think it's a reflection off of one of the lenses inside the camera. This depends on how sopsticated the camera is though. Immagine the series of reflections you get when a camera points into the sun. Each of these is one of the 5% of light intensity reflections you get off of a glass lense. When a camera is looking at the sun, you get a series of images of the sun of various colors and sizes. This explanation would cover the decrease in the intensity of the light.

Well, that wasn't very well written, but I think I've made my point.

 

[matthyaouw]

Failed step leader was my first thought but I'm not sure. A few years back my dad was gardening right before a storm hit. The air around him took on a glowing appearance and there was an audible hiss right before lightning hit somewhere very close by. My mum and I saw and heard it too, and a neighbour a few doors down saw the glow but didn't catch the sound. He was unharmed but I think he shifted even faster than that dog did straight afterwards. We didn't see any bolts or anything like that, but maybe it varies time to time.

Look at the sky. It's bright and completely overexposed, the sensor is already reading pure white so you wouldn't actually see the lighting strike in the sky. It could be flare from a strike you don't actually see.

Their reactions sound like they saw something out of the ordinary but the soundtrack could have been added afterwards.

I'm honestly not sure. There's not really anything conclusive either way.

 

[flatmaster]

I think the leader theory is out. Wouldn't the leader start at some pointy object like a lightning rod or phone pole rather than the flat ground? THis is where charge accumulates and increases the local E field enough to ionize the air and turn it into a good conductor.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I don't think it's a failed leader. If it was a failed leader, wouldn't there be a single strike rather than two or three?

Not necessarily. It is common to see many local streamers near a strike.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I think the leader theory is out. Wouldn't the leader start at some pointy object like a lightning rod or phone pole rather than the flat ground? THis is where charge accumulates and increases the local E field enough to ionize the air and turn it into a good conductor.

That is true, but not absolute. This is one of the problems with making effective lightning rods. Lightning doesn't always go where one would expect. The strike might go right past the lightning rod and hit a spot that seems far less likely. Lightning has even been known to come through a bedroom wall, make a U-turn in the bedroom, and exit through the same wall. In that particular case, there was a person in the room sleeping. What a way to wake up!

Presumably, this occurs in part due to local variations in the ground potential. As the lightning gets closer and closer to a target area, local effects come into play.

 

[DaveC426913]

Lightning has even been known to come through a bedroom wall, make a U-turn in the bedroom, and exit through the same wall. In that particular case, there was a person in the room sleeping. What a way to wake up!

I find it extremely hard to believe that this is an accepted account. I'm sure that's how the sleeeping person might say things went, but there can be no veracity to that.

The only thing that could be said is that there are two paths for the lightning (probably both in).

 

[Noja888]

The delay in sound is what gets me the most as being possibly fake. Two weeks ago my house was hit by lightning (about 3:30 am) - the sound and flash are instantaneous. Somehow I woke up quick enough to see purple daylight out my window. With this said I can validate that a sleeping person can wake up as the strike is in process. And I can also say surge protectors are not 100% reliable (bye-bye computer, 3 T.V.'s, Xbox and phone). The strike fried my PC but left the Monitor, speakers, and Printer intact! All were plugged into the same surge protector and it was switched off from the wall!

I thought lightning leaders were very hard to film without high speed cameras. The film I have seen on the ones that shoot up from the ground not the sky before a strike are different in appearance.

I would say in my opinion that dog stuck by lightning is a fake with 93% certainty.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I find it extremely hard to believe that this is an accepted account. I'm sure that's how the sleeeping person might say things went, but there can be no veracity to that.

I saw the news report and the holes in the wall myself.

How much time have you spent studying the subject, none?

 

[TubbaBlubba]

As for the delay in sound, remember that this is a youtube video. They aren't always well-synched.

 

[DaveC426913]

I saw the news report and the holes in the wall myself.

How much time have you spent studying the subject, none?

How did either the news reporters or you deduce which direction the lightning was traveling during each of the two passages? Does lightning passing inward through a wall look substantially different from lightning passing outward through a wall? Does it leave a cone of destruction, like a large-calibre bullet, identifying direction of travel?

Because, if it doesn't, how do you know whether the lightning came in, turned around and left, versus for example, whether it forked and came in in two places?