Tonight, as storms rolled through the theme parks at the Walt Disney World Resort in Central Florida, a video posted online appears to show the Spaceship Earth structure at EPCOT being struck by lightning.
As two Guests were live-streaming from EPCOT during the storms tonight, the sky was filled with the illumination of episodes of continual lightning. At one point during the live stream, a huge lightning bolt pierced the night sky and reached down toward the Spaceship Earth structure, seemingly striking the structure.
However, since Disney has hidden hundreds of lightning rods throughout the parks, it’s unlikely that the bolt actually hit Spaceship Earth; it’s far more likely that it hit a lightning rod atop the nearly 200-foot-tall structure.
According to Weird Disney, Central Florida sees more lightning than any other part of the country–on average, the area sees more than 50 lightning strikes per square mile. Lightning can be beautiful and awe-inspiring from a distance, but it can be deadly too.
That’s why there are lots of hidden lightning rods scattered around the Walt Disney World Resort–many in plain sight, but you might never know they were lightning rods. For example, at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the Mickey Mouse that stands atop the high tower of the Crossroads kiosk near the entrance to the park is a lightning rod; well, his right ear is. It’s made of copper and, as with any other non-Mickey lightning rod, it attracts the lightning to it. Once a bolt strikes the rod, the rod channels the millions of volts of energy produced by the lightning through the copper around the structure and into the ground below.
The weather vane atop the Hall of Presidents structure at Magic Kingdom‘s Liberty Square is also a lightning rod, as are the spires at the topmost point of the Hollywood Tower Hotel that houses the Tower of Terror attraction at Hollywood Studios. (That place was struck by lightning back in 1939, and 5 people in the elevator disappeared and have never been seen again. Or so the story goes.)
Seeing a lightning flash can be fascinating, but because of the dangers associated with lightning Disney has very specific procedures in place in the event of a lightning storm anywhere within 10 miles of the Walt Disney World Resort.
Per Disney’s website, the Walt Disney World Lightning Policy states the following:
“Event operations will shut down when lightning is 10 miles out from the event areas. Event operations will not resume until the lightning is 10 miles out moving away from the event areas. The event management team will consult with Walt Disney World Resort Management on a course of action to utilize the operational rain plan, delay the event or cancel the event.”
