10/05/2009 Florida Crossroads – Bolts From Above

Florida is the “Lightning Capital of the United States” and for a good reason. With more than 1.5 million lightning strikes per year, lightning kills more Floridians than any other weather hazard, including hurricanes, tornadoes and floods. Although science has expanded in the 250 years since Benjamin Franklin’s experiments with lightning, much about the natural phenomena remains a mystery. Scientists still do not fully understand how lightning gets started in the clouds, how it decides to attach itself to objects on the ground and why it takes a crooked path to get there.  Kirsti Satterstrom shows us some of the research being done in Florida to better understand and forecast the “Bolts From Above.”