A question about dry lightning?

Question

My dad and I are arguing about this: a man from Miami was killed by dry lightning. Even though the sky above him was clear, there was a storm near by, or around the area. Is that correct? That is my arguement. and my fathers is that it is just out of the blue and there was not a storm near by. Who is correct?

Okay... but who is right? Me, or my dad?

Answer 1

Nobody is answering your actual question. You are right, lightning can strike miles away from a thunderstorm, even with blue sky overhead.

Answer 2

There two types of dry lightning, one is where the lightning strikes from a storm at a great distance up to 15 miles, the other kind of dry lightning occurs here in the Pacific Northwest East of the Cascades where the base of the thundrstorm is about 5,000 feet. where no rain can hit the ground. In this case the rain does fall, but evaporates before it hits the ground, this is the kind of lightning that can and does start wild fires.

Answer 3

It sounds like anvil-to-ground lightning (aka: bolts out of the blue). It is a form of positive lightning, since it emanates from the anvil top of a cumulonimbus cloud where the ice crystals are positively charged. The leader stroke issues forth in a nearly horizontal direction until it veers toward the ground. These usually occur miles ahead of the main storm and will strike without warning on a sunny day.

Answer 4

As a Wildland Firefighter, we go into periods of Dry Lightning frequently. This normally is hazardous because you get a storm that produces the lightning but no precipitation reaches the ground to saturate the fuels and damper fire spread from a potential fire start. This evaporation of the rain before it reaches the ground is call virga.

Answer 5

Lightning can't occur out of nothing. But there have been cases of lightning striking several miles from the thundercloud that spawned the storm, even though it could be clear blue sky overhead.