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Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 94: Jul-Aug 1994 |
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Horse sense?
Writing to Weather in connection with an earlier letter regarding the possible stalling of a car due to lightning (SF#90), P.F. Borrows recounted a pertinent incident involving horses and lightning:
"I was driving from Aylesbury to High Wycombe via Hampden during a thunderstorm. On an open hillside to the north of the valley, two horses were quietly grazing when suddenly, for no obvious reason, they bolted to the far end of the field. Within about 15 seconds of them moving, there was a lightning strike at the point where they had been standing. How interesting to reflect that more modern means of transport may also be able to detect the highly charged atmospheric state, but appear to be immobilised rather than spurred to self-preservation."
(Borrows, P.F.; "Horses Bolt, Spurred by Lightning," Weather, 48:161, 1993.)