Autumn weather in Dunedin City

There was rain in the forecast, heavy rain! Not only that, hail, even thunder and lightning. This was going to be one impressive evening of weather! Yet, I was sceptical. It’s not that I don’t believe the Met Service, it’s just that they have let me down so many times before. I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve read of there being snow in the forecast, only to find that nothing more than a few messily flakes drifting across the city.

Having read that an impressive thunderstorm was on the horizon for the evening, you could forgive me for being a little dubious. Even more so, given the fact that the day itself was a gloriously sunny, cloudless day with the temperature hovering in the early 20s and the warm radiance of the sun beating down on the city. As I stood there looking across the city to the aqua blue harbour, it was a little hard to believe that the weather was going to turn so dramatically. However, if there was going to be a lightning storm, I at least wanted to be in a position to see it!Which brings to mind the story of Roy Sullivan, an American park ranger who was given the nickname the ‘human lightning rod’, for holding the Guinness World Record for being struck by lightning more times than any other human being. Over the span of his 71 years, Roy was struck a staggering seven times by lightning. The first recorded strike was in April 1942 when he was hiding from a thunderstorm in a newly built lookout tower that had no lightning rod. He was then struck again in 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1976, and again in 1977. Amazingly, Sullivan’s wife was also struck when a thunderstorm suddenly arrived and she was hit while hanging out the clothes in her backyard. Seriously, this is one couple you don’t want to go out for dinner with.

Despite his incredible luck (or misfortune) when it comes to lightning, Sullivan didn’t die of a lightning strike. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the stomach, which is quite a tragic end to a really bizarre life story. If it tells us anything, it’s that when a lightning storm is around, you certainly don’t want to be in Roy Sullivan’s shoes.