Spring and summer bring shattered air

摘要

I recently read the book Shattered Air, a true story of a group of hikers who were repeatedly struck by lightning while on top of Half Dome, a solid granite 8 800-foot mountain in California's Yosemite National park during a powerful thunderstorm. Of the five men involved, two died, two required months of hospital care with permanent debilitating injuries and the fifth recovered fully but had mental and emotional trauma resulting from the incident. The compelling part of this story for me was the fact that all the hikers totally ignored posted signage tonot ascend to the top of the mountain if there were any indications that storms might occur - even if there were just clouds in the area. After the storm hit, the men went into a shallow, open rock structure and were leaning against the granite rock when the strikes occurred. The strikes were not directly on them but elsewhere on the mountain top. The released electricity travelled along the surface of the granite and struck the men. The least injured hiker had found a low depression several feet from the others and remained there.