Record Lightning Storm Hits California Following Legalized Gay Marriage
by Charles Coughlin
A Washington Post article reports “Firefighters continued to battle nearly 850 wildfires in Northern California yesterday. The blazes were sparked by what one state official called an ‘unprecedented’ lightning storm over the weekend in which more than 5,000 lightning strikes were recorded. Crews from Utah and Nevada have been called in to help fight the fires, which have blackened thousands of acres and threaten thousands of homes.”
Just how unusual is this? State records indicate the number of lightning-caused fires was 223 for the most recent year published (2004). And for 20 years of records the largest total number of lightning-caused fires for an entire year was 733. So in just one storm, a record number of fires has been set. The total number of lightning strikes for this storm “more than 5,000″ is equally impressive.
Curiously, this fantastic amount of lightning took place the week after a California court legalized Gay Marriage. California is the second state in the US (after Massachusetts) to legalize same-sex marriages. Just one week ago, a Reuters article reported “California begins marrying gay and lesbian couples on Monday afternoon in a step likely to challenge other states where laws define marriage as only between a man and a woman. A state Supreme Court decision last month overturning a ban on gay marriage has already produced one major change: marriage licenses will no longer list bride and groom but rather Party A and Party B.” (more…)















