dmccarty
Super Star Member
I have seen my share of lightning and it scares me.
Years ago I lived in Tampa which has quite a bit of lightning. My office was on the 3rd or 4th floor of a building and we just had cubes in a long narrow room. I would guess the room was 60-80 feet long and maybe 20 feet wide. On long side of the room was all glass. We saw a TStorm move in one day so we watched the strikes get closer and closer. One bolt came down and hit a utility pole right outside the building. We where looking down on the top of the pole!
I think a bunch of use lost some fruit of the looms that day. The thought, along with some other stuff, passed through me that the room was not a safe place to be. 
Leaving Tampa one day we headed south on I75 and we ran through a Tstorm. The bolts where hitting on both sides of I75. We could see them hit the trees and ground. Many, many strikes. Cool to see but very scary. The thunder was unreal.
A few years ago we were at the beach a few months after a small hurricane had hit. There was quite a bit of mess and roofs still where being fixed. I was out in a kayak and got caught by a storm. I paddled my fanny back to the house as fast as I could go since the only "safe" place I could see was to hide along the face of a dune.
People stayed on the beach sitting in metal chairs. There where two guys on the house next to house fixing the roof. You could see bolts striking near by as the storm moved in and these guys finally got off the roof when the rain hit. A few minutes after that I saw a bolt hit a utility pole a street or two to the north. It had come in from the south. Those guys where very luck to be alive.
We live on the highest ground for about a mile or so. No real high but we are about 100 feet higher than our nearest neighbor. I have seen bolt strikes nearby killing trees. After reading some of the links I guess we should look at installing a system.
The buildings I work in have rods every 3/6 feet along the perimeter of the roof....
We have been wondering if our house is "safer" because we don't have metal plumbing pipes. We have PEX and PVC. No copper or iron. We still avoid the baths when the storms are in the area but I wonder if we are "safer."
Later,
Dan
Years ago I lived in Tampa which has quite a bit of lightning. My office was on the 3rd or 4th floor of a building and we just had cubes in a long narrow room. I would guess the room was 60-80 feet long and maybe 20 feet wide. On long side of the room was all glass. We saw a TStorm move in one day so we watched the strikes get closer and closer. One bolt came down and hit a utility pole right outside the building. We where looking down on the top of the pole!
Leaving Tampa one day we headed south on I75 and we ran through a Tstorm. The bolts where hitting on both sides of I75. We could see them hit the trees and ground. Many, many strikes. Cool to see but very scary. The thunder was unreal.
A few years ago we were at the beach a few months after a small hurricane had hit. There was quite a bit of mess and roofs still where being fixed. I was out in a kayak and got caught by a storm. I paddled my fanny back to the house as fast as I could go since the only "safe" place I could see was to hide along the face of a dune.
We live on the highest ground for about a mile or so. No real high but we are about 100 feet higher than our nearest neighbor. I have seen bolt strikes nearby killing trees. After reading some of the links I guess we should look at installing a system.
The buildings I work in have rods every 3/6 feet along the perimeter of the roof....
We have been wondering if our house is "safer" because we don't have metal plumbing pipes. We have PEX and PVC. No copper or iron. We still avoid the baths when the storms are in the area but I wonder if we are "safer."
Later,
Dan