Lightning, Belau
- When
- May 9, 12:00 PM SST to 3:00 PM SST
- Where
- Belau County, Palau
- Property damage
- $50,000
- Reported by
- NEWSPAPER
Lightning Strike in Guam, May 9, 2003
Lightning struck Meyuns in Palau, causing major equipment damage on multiple levels to transmission facilities. The strike caused total outages on Palau's international telephone and Internet connections as well as local service to Meuns, Angaur and Peleliu.
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $50,000
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 1
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
What happened
The episode as NWS GUA wrote it up.
Lightning struck Meyuns in Palau, causing major equipment damage on multiple levels to transmission facilities. The strike caused total outages on Palau's international telephone and Internet connections as well as local service to Meuns, Angaur and Peleliu. The lightning also destroyed the telephone system at the President's office. No one was injured during the event.
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS GUA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 9, 3:43 AM SST, 8 hours 17 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, May 9, 3:43 AM SST, 8 hours 17 minutes before
AREA SYNOPTIC DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TIYAN GU 1 AM GUAM LST SAT MAY 10 2003 WESTERN NORTH PACIFIC BETWEEN EQUATOR AND 25N FROM 130E TO 180. AN UPPER-LEVEL TROUGH OF LOW PRESSURE EXTENDS SOUTHWEST FROM 20N150E TO AN UPPER-LEVEL LOW CENTERED NEAR 17N147E TO 10N137E. FAVORABLE WINDS TO THE EAST OF THE UPPER-LEVEL TROUGH ARE GENERATING WIDESPREAD CLOUDINESS BETWEEN 10N AND 20N FROM 150E TO 165E. TRADE WIND CONVERGENCE...IN CONJUNCTION WITH FAVORABLE UPPER-LEVEL WINDS...IS GENERATING NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS MOST OF WESTERN MICRONESIA. THIS AREA IS BETWEEN THE EQUATOR AND 9N FROM 130E TO 152E AND INCLUDES PALAU...YAP AND CHUUK. LOW-LEVEL CONVERGENCE IS IGNITING SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS SOUTH OF MAJURO...BETWEEN THE EQUATOR AND 7N FROM 168E TO 175E...AND WITHIN 60 MILES OF A LINE FROM 5N156E TO 8N164E...JUST SOUTH OF POHNPEI.
Event by event
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Lightning
- A lightning strike that killed, injured or caused damage.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Tornadoes and Hail in Oklahoma, May 9, 2003
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Virginia, May 9, 2003
- Tornadoes and Flash Flooding in Missouri, May 9 to 10, 2003
- Heavy Rain in Missouri, May 9, 2003
- Rip Current in Florida, May 9, 2003
- Rip Current in Florida, May 9, 2003
- Tornadoes and Hail in North Carolina, May 9, 2003
- Flooding in Iowa, May 9 to 28, 2003
- Hail and High Wind in Illinois, May 9 to 10, 2003
- Hail and Damaging Wind in West Virginia, May 9, 2003
- Tornadoes and Hail in Virginia, May 9, 2003
- Tornadoes and Hail in North Carolina, May 9, 2003
More
Every storm in Guam in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in Guam, May 2003
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5355682.