I do believe this is a smelly fake. and pretty much anyone who's been photographing lightning storms or just seen it close up a couple of times will tell you the same.
me, I've actually seen a lightning strike at about the same distance more than once and for one, it would have hit a tree, especially since there were some that close - and it obviously didn't because you can see when a lightning hits a tree (it's quite the physical force). second, lightning that close to the ground would only be seen as an almost direct line, it's a lot higher above the ground that it splits and chains, and it certainly wouldn't have been 'caught' in at least 3 frames as it is in this video, it's a lot shorter than that.
so the sound might've been genuine, and they might've seen a real lightning close nearby, but I suppose they didn't catch it on film and decided to fake it. shame on them.
i think this video pretty much disproves the one above.
the 'lightning' in this video looks like something that was overlaid from another, further-away encounter.
edit: (after reading through the digg comments i suppose it's possible that it ran through the overhead lines, and the strike itself occurred much further away, but i'm still inclined to believe that it's fake.)
Yeah, going with *fake on this one too. A real bolt would have been much brighter and thicker from that close. And as looris said, no one would have just stood around and said "ooh, did you get that?" No, they would have ran. ALSO, let's not forget simple physics. If the bolt actually struck that close, the sound it would have made would be instantaneous. There would have been no delay like it had to travel thousands of feet to get to the mic. Thunder makes a rumble; lighning makes a crash. (noise) This video would have you believe the opposite, as when the lightning "struck" it rumbled, and then crashed as if it was a mile away.
And as far as the "travels through the power lines" thing, you'd have to be an idiot to believe that. Everyone knows that electricity is fucking lazy. It wants the easiest path to ground. Air is a terrible conductor, hence the reason you don't get zapped when you walk by a fucking outlet. If the lightning were indeed traveling through the lines, it would have stayed there, not just randomly jumped out in someone's back yard for him to videotape and put on youtube.
I also don't see a single power line anywhere in this entire video. The only line I can see is to the right in the background - which is the trim of a house.
I'm not ready to declare this a fake, but I'm not endorsing it as legit either. I just don't know. But I'm going to address a couple of the statements made here.
it would have hit a tree, especially since there were some that close
"The tallest objects in a storm don't always get struck by lightning. It's true that taller objects are closer to the clouds, but as discussed previously, lightning can strike the ground at a close distance to a tall object. Taller objects may have a higher possibility of a strike, but where lightning is concerned, the strike path is not predictable." from http://science.howstuffworks.com/lightning2.htm
and it certainly wouldn't have been 'caught' in at least 3 frames as it is in this video, it's a lot shorter than that.
I don't think you can really make that claim without more knowledge about the camera. Based on the quality of the video, it appears to be a fairly cheap camera, but that could just be the compression. We have no idea how many FPS they were recording at nor how many re-strikes made up this bolt, so we can't determine how many frames a bolt of lightning would appear in. If we assume it's a cheap camera, then we have to consider the possibility that the crappy sensor would not recover from such a high intensity light very quickly.
And as far as the "travels through the power lines" thing, you'd have to be an idiot to believe that. Everyone knows that electricity is fucking lazy. It wants the easiest path to ground. Air is a terrible conductor, hence the reason you don't get zapped when you walk by a fucking outlet. If the lightning were indeed traveling through the lines, it would have stayed there, not just randomly jumped out in someone's back yard for him to videotape and put on youtube.
A power line is not going to be sufficient to contain a lightning bolt. I doubt it's possible for the core bolt to travel through a power line at all, but it's certainly possible for one of the smaller branches to. But these smaller branches are still seeking a path to the ground and I see no reason why they wouldn't arc to the earth rather than travel several miles to the transfer station, given the opportunity.
The comparison to household AC isn't of much use. Lightning may be electricity but a household circuit and the circuit of a lightning bolt are far, far different aside from sharing the basic properties.
I also don't see a single power line anywhere in this entire video.
I thought the gigantic power line strung just beyond the fence at the far end of the yard was pretty obvious.
Anyway, I doubt this is a video of a bolt of lightning striking anywhere near that dog. The shockwave at that range would be rather powerful. Even if nobody had a cognitive reaction to the strike, things would have moved. At best, I think we've got some "stray" voltage sparking in the yard. I went and found a few copies of this video and went frame by frame taking some screenshots into photoshop to evaluate. There's a bolt that comes down that I do not see when the video is playing normally, even now that I know it's there. I suspect this bolt is a ways off in the distance. The motion of the camera causes a streak that could give the impression that it's on the near side of the fence. After that are the 3 S-shaped bolts that are plainly seen in the video, and are all of identical shape and size. These definitely don't look real, but they also don't look like something someone who was trying to fake a lightning strike would put in either. I wonder if they are some sort of lens or sensor artifact? Maybe even some peculiar electrical interference?
I never compared it to AC. What I'm saying is that if by chance the bolt did in fact get inside the power lines, they would not leave them randomly. All power lines are accompanied by a ground wire that is at least as big as the largest conductor in that cable, as per the National Electrical Code. (I know this, I did electrical work for two years) From there, it would have traveled to the nearest connection to ground which would have been no more than 300 feet away. As far as that line above the fence, like I said, it looked more like a house, what with that vertical line on the right of it.
Has anyone here actually seen the site of a lightning strike? If this were real, there would be a hole in the ground. Even a small fork would leave a divot or two. The grass isn't even ruffled, so no, this is not real.
I agree with Detlev. There should be some collateral damage. Also, the area around the blast would have been charged and the dog and human spectators would be shocked if they were that distance from the strike. Also, the image does not appear to be consistent with other lightning strike footage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn65RFvJKnk). Finally, knock back aside, the camera would most likely have had some interference from that range as lightning creates an EMP when it strikes (http://www.ees-group.co.uk/downloads/Secondary%20Effects.pdf). The image should have been distorted by the camera man losing footing and the EMP causing a sputter in the footage.
Bottom line: it looks photoshop to me. If it's not, it looks AT BEST looks like a reflection off something else.
I think it's real- just based on the voices - I think I have pretty good fakedar with regard t people' vocal performance- I get no tingle from this. They sound authentic.
I suppose the audio could be real and the video fake - and they were actually just reacting to something else.
I have twice had lightning strike a tower about 300 ft from me, which would appear to be three times farther than this yard is perhaps? These were no ambiguous giggle-about-the-dog loud noises, these was a FINGER OF ZEUS class event that were loud and riveting beyond compare. If lightning really struck that yard, those people would be pooping twinkies of surprise at that distance, that dog would be cowering at the owners feet. Fake! Or perhaps it's Lightning Lite, a new, friendlier face on an old weather tradition?
By the way, at 300 ft distance, lightning induces so much electrical field in long ethernet wires as to blow up hubs/switches/computers... myth CONFIRMED
Jesus, is this what modern life has become? We spend all of our time marking MySpace friend requests as spam and analyzing every internet video like it's the God damned Zapruder film? Douchebags of the net have driven us to this fate!
Don't be a douchebag! Stop the faking of internet videos!
1.) I was under a tree that got a direct hit once when I was younger and everything within 100 feet was bright white. Like 1000 watts directly in the eyes bright, no matter which way you looked.
2.) I've seen leader bolts from lightening a block or more away from the main bolt as they reach up and they look like this.
My thought is that these are small ground to cloud leaders reaching up at a secondary or tertiary termination point and not the primary site of impact.
Upvote for the cojones on that dog though! No matter what many dogs would be cowering and he's running around saying bring it on.
If the video is untampered with, I don't think this is a real lightning bolt as much as some other related electrical phenomena. I could believe that it's striking a power line a few hundred feet away.
Fake or not, who cares, the doggie likes to chase thunder, and has fun in the rain!!! Up vote for the producers, they really know how to sell snake, or at the very least, get into and out of town, without doing so onna rail......Dupes all, in the thread above!!!!
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me, I've actually seen a lightning strike at about the same distance more than once and for one, it would have hit a tree, especially since there were some that close - and it obviously didn't because you can see when a lightning hits a tree (it's quite the physical force).
second, lightning that close to the ground would only be seen as an almost direct line, it's a lot higher above the ground that it splits and chains, and it certainly wouldn't have been 'caught' in at least 3 frames as it is in this video, it's a lot shorter than that.
so the sound might've been genuine, and they might've seen a real lightning close nearby, but I suppose they didn't catch it on film and decided to fake it. shame on them.
the 'lightning' in this video looks like something that was overlaid from another, further-away encounter.
edit: (after reading through the digg comments i suppose it's possible that it ran through the overhead lines, and the strike itself occurred much further away, but i'm still inclined to believe that it's fake.)
also, why was he "just filming his still dog for 30 seconds"?
why nobody panicked or anything? (there's always someone who panickes).
Thunder makes a rumble; lighning makes a crash. (noise) This video would have you believe the opposite, as when the lightning "struck" it rumbled, and then crashed as if it was a mile away.
And as far as the "travels through the power lines" thing, you'd have to be an idiot to believe that. Everyone knows that electricity is fucking lazy. It wants the easiest path to ground. Air is a terrible conductor, hence the reason you don't get zapped when you walk by a fucking outlet. If the lightning were indeed traveling through the lines, it would have stayed there, not just randomly jumped out in someone's back yard for him to videotape and put on youtube.
I also don't see a single power line anywhere in this entire video. The only line I can see is to the right in the background - which is the trim of a house.
it would have hit a tree, especially since there were some that close
"The tallest objects in a storm don't always get struck by lightning. It's true that taller objects are closer to the clouds, but as discussed previously, lightning can strike the ground at a close distance to a tall object. Taller objects may have a higher possibility of a strike, but where lightning is concerned, the strike path is not predictable." from http://science.howstuffworks.com/lightning2.htm
and it certainly wouldn't have been 'caught' in at least 3 frames as it is in this video, it's a lot shorter than that.
I don't think you can really make that claim without more knowledge about the camera. Based on the quality of the video, it appears to be a fairly cheap camera, but that could just be the compression. We have no idea how many FPS they were recording at nor how many re-strikes made up this bolt, so we can't determine how many frames a bolt of lightning would appear in. If we assume it's a cheap camera, then we have to consider the possibility that the crappy sensor would not recover from such a high intensity light very quickly.
And as far as the "travels through the power lines" thing, you'd have to be an idiot to believe that. Everyone knows that electricity is fucking lazy. It wants the easiest path to ground. Air is a terrible conductor, hence the reason you don't get zapped when you walk by a fucking outlet. If the lightning were indeed traveling through the lines, it would have stayed there, not just randomly jumped out in someone's back yard for him to videotape and put on youtube.
A power line is not going to be sufficient to contain a lightning bolt. I doubt it's possible for the core bolt to travel through a power line at all, but it's certainly possible for one of the smaller branches to. But these smaller branches are still seeking a path to the ground and I see no reason why they wouldn't arc to the earth rather than travel several miles to the transfer station, given the opportunity.
The comparison to household AC isn't of much use. Lightning may be electricity but a household circuit and the circuit of a lightning bolt are far, far different aside from sharing the basic properties.
I also don't see a single power line anywhere in this entire video.
I thought the gigantic power line strung just beyond the fence at the far end of the yard was pretty obvious.
Anyway, I doubt this is a video of a bolt of lightning striking anywhere near that dog. The shockwave at that range would be rather powerful. Even if nobody had a cognitive reaction to the strike, things would have moved. At best, I think we've got some "stray" voltage sparking in the yard. I went and found a few copies of this video and went frame by frame taking some screenshots into photoshop to evaluate. There's a bolt that comes down that I do not see when the video is playing normally, even now that I know it's there. I suspect this bolt is a ways off in the distance. The motion of the camera causes a streak that could give the impression that it's on the near side of the fence. After that are the 3 S-shaped bolts that are plainly seen in the video, and are all of identical shape and size. These definitely don't look real, but they also don't look like something someone who was trying to fake a lightning strike would put in either. I wonder if they are some sort of lens or sensor artifact? Maybe even some peculiar electrical interference?
From there, it would have traveled to the nearest connection to ground which would have been no more than 300 feet away. As far as that line above the fence, like I said, it looked more like a house, what with that vertical line on the right of it.
Bottom line: it looks photoshop to me. If it's not, it looks AT BEST looks like a reflection off something else.
I suppose the audio could be real and the video fake - and they were actually just reacting to something else.
Don't be a douchebag! Stop the faking of internet videos!
1.) I was under a tree that got a direct hit once when I was younger and everything within 100 feet was bright white. Like 1000 watts directly in the eyes bright, no matter which way you looked.
2.) I've seen leader bolts from lightening a block or more away from the main bolt as they reach up and they look like this.
My thought is that these are small ground to cloud leaders reaching up at a secondary or tertiary termination point and not the primary site of impact.
Upvote for the cojones on that dog though! No matter what many dogs would be cowering and he's running around saying bring it on.