Wake Up Call !!!!

[FredH]

Had been up since O dark thirty and had taken our dog out before 06:00 then was playing on the computer at 06:30 . Seen a Flash right outside the office window , followed within a milli second by a ear splitting " Crack " . Oak leaves , pine bark , etc... was seen flashing by the window headed else were . Looked out the window and seen the following .













Tree is maybe 30 feet from our house , approximately 100+ years old and standing around 70' to 80' tall . Only real damage was that as the juice traveled down the tree , it contacted a guy wire for our utility pole . shot across it then arc'ed across to the metal weatherhead , ( but had no were to go there since bottom of weather head is plastic so likely went through to the ground ) . While that was happening apparently it also must of arc'ed about a foot or so to a brass splice in our cable line . Shot through the cable modem then fried our router and 3 network cards . Although it did not contact our utility light on top the pole ( ???? ) , it did fry the photo electric cell on top of the light . So the Photo cell was $ 12 , then router at $60 , plus the network cards with 2 being $ 29 and the last $ 15 . $ 145 for one heck of a wake up call . The look in my wifes eyes as she came flying out of the bedroom was .

Next door neighbor was up and knew it was close . His wife , who is a really sound sleeper was just like my wife according to them when they came over to survey the encounter .

Only 2 things that bothered me was there had been no thunder for over an hour and that I had walked withing 2 feet of that tree just 1/2 hour before .

Fred H.

 

[DWW68]

What a way to start the day. Glad to hear nobody was hurt, and small fee to return back to normal.

 

[ray66v]

I can name that tune. We have had 2 close strikes in the last year. Knocking out The modem in my Tivo, my wifes DVR, photo cells, the TV in the garage. Mt neighbors satellite receiver, and it was a direct hit on my neighbors invisible fence. She called them and they came out looked at it, and said "holy crap!!!" And replaced it free of charge.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/safety/105099d1214103716-wake-up-call-image016.jpg
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[Skyco]

I'm very familiar with lightning strikes as I work for a communications company and we get hit all the time at our many towers. Most of the time there is no damage due to extensive grounding.
At home I've been nailed a couple of times...sandy soil and a 80' tower for amateur radio doesn't help.
One thing I learned after losing several routers and LAN cards- go wireless. You'll be better off in the long run if you get hit very often. The unshielded LAN cables make a great lightning "antenna" to pick up EMP.
BTW the LAN cards may have been instantly fried but don't be surprised if other mysterious computer troubles show up months later. Sometimes the semiconductor junctions get weakend by a big EMP hit then fail later at the smallest stressor.

PS I was at a tower one time when it was lightly raining, no thunder. The first lightning strike in that area was right there. Normally if there is lightning we leave towers, no warning with this one. Blew the telco box off the building 30 ft into the driveway, destroyed all the ceramic stuff on the power transformer and ate about $50,000 worth of electronics. Worst hit we've had in 20+ years and I was there for it BTW the company sent me to a hearing specialist because I was temporarily deafened by the BANG
I've also seen a neigbors house have the electric meter forcibly ejected and flung 20 ft into the yard from a hit...whoa!

 

[irwin]

This reminds me of a lightening strike I saw about 40 years ago. I was about 13-14 at the time. It was raining a little and the wind was fierce, I was just outside our front door and I saw/heard a bright "ball" travel horizontally down the phone/electric lines then hit a transformer about 100 feet from me, a big echoing bang !!... Cool , I thought, mixed with the fear and awe I felt, of course we lost power for several hours.

 

[ampsucker]

i, too, have seen the ball travel down the power lines. i was about 8-10 years old and watched it go FROM the transformer TO the house. freaked my out. i told the parentals and we checked everything out, but couldn't find any damage. it was winter time and there was snow and ice around. i seem to remember icicles on the roof.

anyway, it was the only time i've seen or heard of balls of light riding the power lines, until now ;-)

i've heard of ball lighting, but i think that's something different. anyway, like the others, it wasn't storming during my observation and was actually in the winter when conditions in our area aren't very good for making electrical storms happen.

amp

 

[Mighty Dodge]

I remember as a kid sitting on the concrete floor in basement when lightning struck outside the house and I got a mild shock. The hit killed one of our cats and took out the well pump also.

M.D.

 

[Skyco]

Reminds me about the well pump- had a neighbor that had ALL his trees taken down on his 2 acres because he thought the lightning was attracted to them and getting his well pump, which was blown out several times. Made no difference he still lost his pump several more times, probably due to poor grounding and lack of surge protection

 

[czechsonofagun]

Glad you are OK; but it reminded me of an old joke. It goes like this:

A priest is playing golf with a nun. On the first hole, he lines up his putt, swings, and misses the hole. "kurva, I missed," he yells.

The nun is shocked, but she thinks "maybe it was an accident" and they keep playing.

On the next hole, the priest lines up his putt, swings, and misses again. "kurva, I missed," he yells again This time, the nun is starting to get concerned, but she knows the priest is a good man, so they keep on playing.

On the third hole, the priest once again lines up putt, swings, and misses. "kurva, I missed," he yelled for the third time. This time, the nun says, "I worried about you father, I think you should stop saying that." The priest just grumbles and keeps playing.

On the fourth hole, the priest lines up his putt, swings, and misses again. As he yells "kurva, I missed," a liightning bolt strikes down the nun.

The clouds part, and a voice says, "KURVA, I missed."

* kurva is a bad word substitute