Lightning struck and killed 10 cows standing under a tree.
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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.
The episode as NWS TAE wrote it up.
Lightning struck and killed 10 cows standing under a tree.
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 Tallahassee, FL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 11, 2:43 PM EST, 1 hour 44 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TALLAHASSEE FL
343 PM EDT TUE AUG 11 2015
.Near Term [Through Tonight]...
Regional WV imagery depicts a well defined +PV anomaly moving
through the base of the eastern CONUS trough, into the Mid-Atlantic.
At the surface, an 18z analysis depicted a couple of troughs draped
through northern and central GA and AL, associated with the upper
level feature.
Scattered convection has been forming along, and moving southeast
off of these two troughs. So far, this has only impacted the
northern tier of our GA and AL counties. Elsewhere, isolated storms
have developed across the Panhandle and Big Bend seabreezes. Expect
a continued inland motion wrt seabreeze storms, while storms from
the north continue to drop into the Tri-State region. Eventually,
much of the local area will see at least a brief shower. There
remains a low-end threat for an isolated strong to severe storm,
with the primary threat being damaging winds.
Overnight lows will only fall into the middle 70s area-wide.
.Short Term [Wednesday Through Thursday Night]...
In the upper levels, the trough over the east coast will deepen
sending the surface front through our CWA on Wednesday. This
boundary will interact with the sea breeze resulting in numerous
showers and thunderstorms mainly over the Florida zones by
afternoon. Convection will be more scattered across our AL and GA
zones as a drier airmass will be filtering in from the north. As the
upper trough continues to dig, the surface boundary along with the
deep layer moisture is forecast to slip to our south by Thursday.
However, both the GFS and 00z ECMWF show a weak area of low pressure
developing over or near our easternmost zones Thursday and
retrograding to our western zones by evening. Pops on Thursday will
be tapered silent 10% northwest to good chance (50%) for Dixie
County. Highs will reach the lower to mid 90s inland areas both
days. With a drier airmass moving in, low temps may dip into the
upper 60s in SE AL and SW GA by Thursday morning.
.Long Term [Friday Through Tuesday]...
Weak upper troughing will prevail over the local area for most of
the extended period with an upper low possibly closing off along the
central Gulf coast late in the weekend. Time height cross sections
and forecast soundings show plenty of mid to upper level dry air in
place for Friday and Saturday before the deep layer moisture and
thus better chances for convection return Sunday into early next
week. Temperatures throughout the period should end up being near
or just below seasonal levels.
&&
.Aviation...
[Through 18Z Wednesday] VFR will prevail through the remainder of the
day. Patchy areas of fog are likely in the morning, but confidence
in where the fog will form remains too low to include in the TAF.
&&
.Marine...
Moderate west winds will veer to the northwest by Wednesday night
as a weak front pushes south across the local waters. Winds will
weaken and swing around to the south by Thursday and remain light
and onshore with low seas at least through the upcoming weekend.
&&
.Fire Weather...
Red flag conditions will not occur for the next several days.
Showers and thunderstorms will be fairly numerous across the Florida
zones on Wednesday.
&&
.Hydrology...
With a frontal boundary moving into the region today, some
enhancement to showers and thunderstorms are expected. Model
guidance suggests that areal average rainfall of 0.75 to 1.5
inches with locally heavier amounts is expected over the next 24
hours. Though minor flooding in urban areas can't be completely
ruled out, the overall flood threat with this system remains low.
With the forecast rainfall totals, no river flooding is expected
with this system.
&&
.Preliminary Point Temps/PoPs...
Tallahassee 76 94 72 94 73 / 30 80 30 30 20
Panama City 79 88 75 90 77 / 30 70 30 20 20
Dothan 75 94 69 95 72 / 30 30 20 10 10
Albany 74 94 69 95 72 / 40 20 20 20 10
Valdosta 75 94 72 95 72 / 50 60 30 40 20
Cross City 77 92 73 92 73 / 20 70 40 50 40
Apalachicola 80 88 76 89 77 / 30 60 30 30 30
&&
.TAE WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
FL...HIGH RIP CURRENT RISK until 8 PM EDT this evening FOR Coastal
Franklin.
GA...NONE.
AL...NONE.
GM...NONE.
&&
NEAR TERM...HARRIGAN
SHORT TERM...BARRY
LONG TERM...BARRY
AVIATION...HARRIGAN
MARINE...BARRY
FIRE WEATHER...DVD
HYDROLOGY...GODSEYThe Moody AFB radar (KVAX), 59 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:29 UTC.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
Ten cows were killed when a pine tree they were standing under was struck by lightning. According to the 2010 farming and ranch guide, the average value of a cow is about $1.58 per pound. The average cow weighs about 2,400 pounds. Thus the damage loss is estimated at about $37,920.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Georgia in 2015Every state in 2015This day in weather historyWarnings in Georgia, August 2015
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: 595279.