58 min
EP 101 – Tom Warner, Lightning Researcher, Breaks it All Down The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast
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- Earth Sciences
Tom Warner, lightning researcher, talked through the old vs new way of understanding lightning, multiple attachments to spinning wind turbines turbines, upward vs downward lightning, how tall objects actually cause more lightning strikes, and more. Follow up with Tom on his website or watch slow-motion videos on his YouTube channel.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Transcript - Tom Warner, Lightning Researcher
00:00:01:00 - 00:00:09:19UnknownI picture you and like your copilot, like in that scene in Caddyshack, just you're getting pelted by three inch hail, you're like, Well, I don't think the heavy stuff is going to come down for quite some time now.
00:00:09:23 - 00:00:28:11UnknownYeah, it was. It was pretty. It was pretty loud. In fact, they put a microphone right on the on the front of the canopy. We recorded two channels of audio, the pilot's comments and then this other hail Mike, and that scientists could actually kind of gauge the size of the hail just from the loud loudness from that
00:00:28:11 - 00:01:01:06Unknownmicrophone. Welcome back. I'm Dan Blewett. I'm Allen Hall and I'm Rosemary Barnes. And this is the Up Time podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. All right. Welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy podcast.
00:01:01:15 - 00:01:20:08UnknownI'm your co-host Dan Blewett. On today's episode. We've got a great guest here today, a lightning expert. Tom Warner. So Tom has a really interesting background, which we'll get into. He was also a pilot in the Air Force and flew this legendary aircraft that will get into a little bit called the T28 storm penetrating aircraft.
00:01:20:13 - 00:01:37:18UnknownAnd what this really means is that it was someone taking aircraft up into storms with the intention of seeing how they did getting struck by lightning, getting hit by a six inch hail. All this crazy stuff in the name of learning more about storms and lightning and how they all interact with planes.
00:01:38:02 - 00:01:51:04UnknownAnd also, he's done a lot of research and photography, high speed video on wind turbine. So a lot of stuff that you'll see in high speed video. You can see how lightning propagates the leaders. Lots of stuff that has never been seen before.
00:01:51:12 - 00:02:10:00UnknownSo, Allan, give me a little more context into Tom because to say like, you're a lightning expert, but Tom is like the lightning expert for lightning experts. Yeah, he's a resource for a lot of people because he's published so much and he's been involved in lightning reaching up from towers, and it's a whole series of papers and
Tom Warner, lightning researcher, talked through the old vs new way of understanding lightning, multiple attachments to spinning wind turbines turbines, upward vs downward lightning, how tall objects actually cause more lightning strikes, and more. Follow up with Tom on his website or watch slow-motion videos on his YouTube channel.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Transcript - Tom Warner, Lightning Researcher
00:00:01:00 - 00:00:09:19UnknownI picture you and like your copilot, like in that scene in Caddyshack, just you're getting pelted by three inch hail, you're like, Well, I don't think the heavy stuff is going to come down for quite some time now.
00:00:09:23 - 00:00:28:11UnknownYeah, it was. It was pretty. It was pretty loud. In fact, they put a microphone right on the on the front of the canopy. We recorded two channels of audio, the pilot's comments and then this other hail Mike, and that scientists could actually kind of gauge the size of the hail just from the loud loudness from that
00:00:28:11 - 00:01:01:06Unknownmicrophone. Welcome back. I'm Dan Blewett. I'm Allen Hall and I'm Rosemary Barnes. And this is the Up Time podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. All right. Welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy podcast.
00:01:01:15 - 00:01:20:08UnknownI'm your co-host Dan Blewett. On today's episode. We've got a great guest here today, a lightning expert. Tom Warner. So Tom has a really interesting background, which we'll get into. He was also a pilot in the Air Force and flew this legendary aircraft that will get into a little bit called the T28 storm penetrating aircraft.
00:01:20:13 - 00:01:37:18UnknownAnd what this really means is that it was someone taking aircraft up into storms with the intention of seeing how they did getting struck by lightning, getting hit by a six inch hail. All this crazy stuff in the name of learning more about storms and lightning and how they all interact with planes.
00:01:38:02 - 00:01:51:04UnknownAnd also, he's done a lot of research and photography, high speed video on wind turbine. So a lot of stuff that you'll see in high speed video. You can see how lightning propagates the leaders. Lots of stuff that has never been seen before.
00:01:51:12 - 00:02:10:00UnknownSo, Allan, give me a little more context into Tom because to say like, you're a lightning expert, but Tom is like the lightning expert for lightning experts. Yeah, he's a resource for a lot of people because he's published so much and he's been involved in lightning reaching up from towers, and it's a whole series of papers and
58 min