"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...

DSK wrote:
Joe wrote:
Dangerious? or a blessing?


I've read the theory that the electrical discharge reduces
the chance of being struck by lightning.... don't know if
that's true.


I've read that it is a precurser to lighting jumping up

I'd tend to agree. Brief story: my wife, brother, sis-in-law and I were
standing on the top of Mt. Evans in Colorado some years back. Beautiful
day, but ominous clouds were rolling in. Soon it was overcast and we began
to hear thunder from about 50 miles away. As we watched the cell approach
we began to notice that the rocks around us were emanating a sound similar
to frying bacon. Gradually the volume increased until it sounded more like
an electrical crackle. Also noted was that our hair was beginning to stand
away from our heads. Ignorant as we were up to that point, we finally got
the message and beat a very hasty retreat to lower ground. About 15 seconds
later a deafening bolt of lightning struck the area in which we had been
standing. Back at the restaurant/tourist trap at the end of the access
road, we told one of the people who worked there about our experience. She
told us that during storms at night (she and others lived in the dorm up
there at 14,000+ ft.) the workers could see the rocks glowing a subtle blue
in the minutes before a lightning strike. A scientist working at the
high-altitude research adjacent to the restaurant told her it was St. Elmo's
Fire. The following seems to lend some credence to that.

http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weathe...nts/stelmo.htm

Max