SEVERE THUNDERSTORM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20365, 20 September 1929, Page 12

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM

• • -•• • • • • - • COW KILLED BY LIGHTNING,

TARANAKI FARMER'S LOSS.

LOG TORN OUT OF GRQUNDi

[BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.,]

NEW PLYMOUTH, Thursday;

A short but severe thunderstorm, accompanied by several exceptionally vivid flashes of lightning and torrential rain, passed over North Taranaki yesterday afternoon. Although little damage was done one flash of lightning cost Mr. E. Locke, of Dorset Road, Hillsborough, a valuable cow.

The cow was apparently killed instantly, as its nose was stuck into the ground with the force of the. fall Toward the end of the spine a round patch o£ hair, almost as big as an open hand, had been burned off, while along the side that had been struck there were thre4 or four thin zig-zag lines burned through the hairl All the hair was burned off the udder.

Another surprising feature was the'state of the ground pbout the spot where tha cow lay. jThe cow, with several others, had been grazing in what was once the bed of a swamp and there are many lop sticking out of the ground. In several places patches of ground had been torn up and 4 the soil scattered. A small log embedded in the ground had been torn out. .