Central PA Summer 2026 Discussion/Obs Thread

[canderson]

Everything N of State College wants to spin today. Multiple tornado warnings 

[Yardstickgozinya]

I'm picking up abnormally, strong lightning strokes on my Am radio stations. The strokes generally don't cause this much interference at such long distance. 

[Yardstickgozinya]

Indeed A cell out there somewhere right now putting out some insane LEMPs. Tune in to an unused, a m frequency and listen you have to choose an a m.Frequency, that puts you between a tower and a storm. You'll know when you get there, you'll hear it.

[Yardstickgozinya]

Anyways, i've talked about this for several years and no one's ever really responded to it. But i've used LEMPs for years while i'm driving and working to know what's going on out there. Think of Cipher in the Matrix. Once you've listened long enough, you can make out the kind of stroke,  whether or not it's getting closer and intensity. 

In the context of storms and meteorology, LEMPs stand for Lightning Electromagnetic Pulses. [1]

They refer to the powerful, disruptive electromagnetic waves naturally radiated into the atmosphere during a lightning discharge. While they may not pose a physical shock risk to humans directly unless struck by lightning, they can induce dangerous power surges that damage or disrupt electronic devices and power grids. [1, 2, 4]

Because lightning activity and cloud-to-ground strikes are a primary indicator of thunderstorm severity and structure, meteorologists utilize artificial intelligence and ground-based sensors to analyze LEMPs to understand a storm's behavior