Was it St. Elmos Fire!!!???

[ADAM12]

Posted Monday about a strange phenom that occurred monday morning. Recall, it was foggy and raining off and on. Lightening was predicted for later in the day. I didn't get much response so I thought I'd post again.

While drifting off of Deer Island, I started hearing a loud sizzle from the tip of a rod in a vert. holder. After about 10 seconds, I recognized it as the sound of hi-voltage - ionizing air. I pulled down the rod and hit the deck. The sizzle moved to my VHF whip antenna. I folded it down and moved the boat. (lightning never struck);

Any scientists out there that can shed some light on this??
Any boaters ever experienced the same??

My questions:

1. Was lightning about to strike ?
2. Was it just "normal" static bleed - actually reducing the chance of lightning ?? Similar to the pins they put on airplanes and steeples?
3. Should something in my boat be grounded to the sea that isn't?
4. Does excess charge on my boat increase or decrease the chances of catching a fish?
5. Anyone got Moulder and Scully's phone number??

Thanks - this has got me curious

adam12
sam-i-am

[Red]

It's odd you should post this, because I also had a flyrod making noise on Monday morning on a boat. Same weather, foggy, occasional light rain. I was in the Upper Bay (Narragansett) My friend was changing a fly (his fly rod was laying horizontal) and the tip of his flyrod started making noise. Not very loud, kind of like a bee, but we both noticed it and traced the noise to his rod tip. Whether it was electrical I don't know. It sounded sort of electrical, but I dismissed it as air pressure inside the rod escaping, and because it was wet making a bit of noise. How that would happen, I don't know, but that's what it sounded like. Maybe when the rod is put together the ferrule pressurizes the air inside the rod just a bit? Sounds ridiculous I know, but while all this was happening I was standing up fishing, and nothing involving my flyrod ever occured. Even after he pulled the flyrod apart it continued making noise for a few more seconds. It's a mystery to me. Never saw or heard any thunderstorm activity in the area, and checking the radar from the time when I was out there when I got home revealed nothing.

[MKDeceiver]

X-file:

Alien transmission heard on flyrod. School of Mutant alien Stripers within 100 yards. largest 150 pounds. Watch out white deceiver...

[ADAM12]

Here's on from the web:

ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA

Saint Elmo's fire

the glow accompanying the brushlike discharges of atmospheric electricity that usually appears as a tip of light on the extremities of such pointed objects as church towers or the masts of ships during stormy weather. It is commonly accompanied by a crackling or fizzing noise.

St. Elmo's fire, or corona discharge, is commonly observed on the periphery of propellers and along the wing tips, windshield, and nose of aircraft flying in dry snow, in ice crystals, or in the vicinity of thunderstorms. Various flight procedures, in addition to mechanical and electrical devices designed to reduce the charge accumulation, are utilized as safeguards in preventing or minimizing discharges.

The name St. Elmo is an Italian corruption, through Sant' Ermo, of St. Erasmus, the patron saint of Mediterranean sailors, who regard St. Elmo's fire as the visible sign of his guardianship over them.

[ADAM12]

And one more....(still looking for Scully's phone number!!);


St. Elmo's Fire is a type of continuous electric spark called a "glow discharge." You've seen it many times before, since it is almost exactly the same as the glows found inside fluorescent tubes, mercury vapor streetlights, old orange-display calculators and in "eye of the storm" plasma globes. When it occurs naturally, we call it St. Elmo's Fire, but when it occurs inside a glass tube, we call it a neon sign.

St. Elmo's Fire and normal sparks both can appear when high electrical voltage affects a gas. St. Elmo's fire is seen during thunderstorms when the ground below the storm is electrically charged, and there is high voltage in the air between the cloud and the ground. The voltage tears apart the air molecules and the gas begins to glow. It takes about 30,000 volts per centimeter of space to start a St. Elmo's fire (although sharp points can trigger it at somewhat lower voltage levels.)

St. Elmo's Fire is plasma. A normal gas is composed of molecules. The molecules are composed of atoms, which in turn are composed of electrons and clusters of proton particles. If the electric force applied to each bit of gas is greater than a certain level of voltage, it causes the electrons and protons of the gas molecules to be pulled away from each other. High voltage transforms the gas into a glowing mixture of separate proton clusters and electrons. We call this mixture of particles by the name "plasma," and it is conductive. It also fluoresces with light.

The color of the glow depends on the type of gas involved. If we lived in an atmosphere of neon gas, then St. Elmo's fire would be red/orange, and lightning would be white with orange edges. Our atmosphere is nitrogen and oxygen, and this mixture glows blue/violet when exposed to high voltage fields. If a neon sign tube was filled with nitrogen/oxygen instead of neon, it would light up blue/violet rather than red/orange.

Is this phenomenon related to ball lightning? No one knows, because no one knows what ball lightning is, and it might not be a spark at all. St. Elmo's fire is sometimes mistaken for ball lightning. Among other differences, ball lightning can drift around like a soap bubble, while St. Elmo's Fire always remains attached to an object.

A more literary analysis of St. Elmo's Fire is provided by Steven A. Ackerman, an assistant professor of atmospheric and oceanic science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison:

I boarded the Kings' ship; now in the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,
I flamed amazement; sometime I'd divide
And burn in many places; on the topmast
The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly
Then meet and join.


--The Tempest (Act I, Scene 2)
William Shakespeare

Air is a good electric insulator. However, if an electric field at the end of a metal rod is strong, air molecules in its vicinity are ionized and charges stream off the end of the rod. Since an electric field is intensified in regions of high curvature, discharges are intensified at the end of pointed metal rods.

These "corona discharges" give a faint light that is visible in the dark. St. Elmo's fire is an example of a continuous corona discharge. It is not a form of lightning. The luminous glow of St. Elmo's fire is sometimes observed at night from the tops of ships' masts when electrified clouds are overhead. The mast appears to be on fire but does not burn. St. Elmo's' fire tends to occur toward the end of a thunderstorm. Mariners have traditionally interpreted it as a good omen.

St. Elmo is the patron saint of sailors but St. Elmo's fire is not bound to the sea. It has been observed atop tall steeples. My brother once saw it envelop metal pipes outside his home.

Answer posted September 22, 1997

[Stiperhound]

I ran into this many times when I used to Captain a charter boat on Lake Ontario. I had a rod rack full of rocket launchers on the top of my boat. When I would have rods up top anywhere near an electrical storm you would hear a crackling noise and sometimes see small electrical charges jumping between the rod tips as they were 12 inches apart. I had a friend who was a weatheman and he explained to me that it was static electricity and the atmoshphere gets supercharged before and during a storm and that due to atmosphere getting negativley charged static electricity is attracted to positive charges, graphite is a great conductor.

[ag1]

Well, it must indeed be a good omen. I seem to recall you did well on the day it occurred. Still, it must have been a bit unsettling seeing it for the first time. Would have freaked me out for sure.

Al

[MICKEY]

VERY INTERESTING. NOW CAN SOMEONE ANSWER THIS QUESTION. HOW SAFE ARE YOU IN AN OPEN BOAT,SAY A 16' TO 20' IN AN ELECTRICAL STORM.IF U KNOW THE STORM IS COMING SHOULD U TRY TO GET BACK TO SAFE HARBOR OR DOES IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE? ALSO IF U ARE STUCK IN THE STORM IN AN OPEN BOAT DO U LAY DOWN,STOOP,OR SIT?

[Plynch]

Your safest bet is to squat down with just your feet touching the ground. If lightning does strike near you (on the water or on land) the current will travel for some way along the suface.If you're lying down, you risk the chance of being burned over a much larger area.

Go check out the Tesla coil show at the Museum of Science some time. They do a good job of explaining lightning

[gottheblues]

Strange enough! I was in Buzzards Bay (by the Mashnee Flats on Sunday 6:30 am and had the same strange buzzing sound. Paid it little mind considering the fish.

Thanks for the info

[jt39]

To beat a dead horse, we also heard the buzz from an upright fly rod, while in boston harbor monday morn. We heard it once, couldnt explain it and went back to fishing. I dont think we heard it again.

JT