Massive lightning strike.

[Mace Canute]

I'm sure many if not most of you have seen this on the news but for those who haven't, here it is. It really shows the energy in a lightning strike.Lightning Travels Through Backyard, Hits Foxboro Home ｫ CBS Boston

[wedge40]

Pretty cool. I wonder if there was a power line in the shed and it followed it back?

Wedge

[Localmotion]

guess insurance will say "act of god"?

I sure feel sorry for the homeowner...

[creekbend]

Thanks for posting.

[creekbend]

www.sciencefacts.us/when-lightning-strikes

[JamesHW]

Well, the good news is running a buried electrical line to the shed became a lot easier!

[RobertBrown]

That's amazing.
We have a lot of lightning here and I've never seen or heard of destruction anything close to that scale.
I would like to know why the energy was so concentrated along that line and did not dissipate in all directions going to ground.
Must have sounded like a plane crash or a train wreck.

[bcp]

guess insurance will say "act of god"?

I sure feel sorry for the homeowner...

Lawsuits against God - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[QRTRHRS]

Absolutely awsome!

Back in 1982, I was working with a friend that had a wind gernerator business. He had just gotten on with the Jacobs Wind Electric Co who had gotten back into the business themselves what with the tax credits for wind and other systems at the time.

We had "inherited" this existing customer from another company that had gone under.These folks had built this rather elaborate three story, octogon or round (I forget which) behemoth on top of a hill. They had grounded the windmill to the well casing. Well, it seems that the driller had stopped using the steel casing going through solid rock and during a dry year the water level had dropped below the casing.

Needless to say, the windmill made a perfect lightning rod. When it got hit, the DC to AC inverter in the garage pretty much exploded as did most of the main breaker box. Looking at that video, I guess it could have been a whole lot worse.

[dmccarty]

That's amazing.
We have a lot of lightning here and I've never seen or heard of destruction anything close to that scale.
I would like to know why the energy was so concentrated along that line and did not dissipate in all directions going to ground.
Must have sounded like a plane crash or a train wreck.

The dug up "trench" is interesting. Must have been a power line underground. I wonder if it was to code and the son knew it was not so kept quiet. You would think the reporter would have asked...

We had a lightning strike hit a tree about 125 feet from our house about 16 months ago. There was a bad front arriving that day and I was supposed to be splitting wood underneath the tree. I checked radar and the storm was 20-40 miles away and there was no way I could start and finish before the front arrived so I called my parents on the cell phone. I was looking out of the window to the west, which I never do, when there was a blinding flash. I do mean blinding. Everything just went white. Then there was a boom. Boom is not the right word for it since the noise was overwhelming and the house was shaking. Course the kids were screaming too.

The cell signal dropped as did the power for a fraction of a second.

There was not a cloud in the sky. That bolt had to have come from the front 20-40 miles away. I would have been working right under a limb of the tree that was hit if I had tried to get some wood split. You could still smell the ozone and burnt wood. There was a bit of smoke from the tree as well. Bark was blow a good 100 feet away from the tree. The leaves on the tree stayed green for a month or two when suddenly they went brown and the tree died. I had to cut a large limb off by hand and at some point I need to cut the tree down. There is a good cord of wood in that tree...

That storm dropped tornadoes all over my part of NC. Killed a few people including a coworker's aunt. It might very well have taken me out as well.

I think a train wreck or plan crash would be quieter.

Later,
Dan