• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Lightning strike 15 feet from house, with pics!

B

BUTCH1

Lifer
Got home around 5 from work today, torrential rain and lightning in progress then it hit a pine tree 15ft from the house, now living in FL you get used to bad storms but the flash and simultaneous explosion coupled by the transformer across the street getting popped as well was F-ing unreal. Had no power till 8:30 as they had to replace it.
DSCF0476_1.jpg
DSCF0475_1.jpg
 
Nice! I have seen it about 100 yards away a couple of times.
One night it just kept hitting all round, so we are out on the porch watching since there was no sleeping. The strike hits a big tree behind the neighbor's house, and he screams F~~CK! like a little girl! Serious LOL time.
 
Wow. Luckily it hit the tree and not your house.

My neighbour's house has a central metal pillar, and a rooftop patio with metal. Basically a big lightning rod, and got hit by lightning last year. Fried his phone system and some other electronics. Damaged part of the rooftop patio and also blew up his patio stones on the ground too. The patio stone part on the ground was pretty impressive. I wasn't aware that would happen from a lightning strike.

skyking said:
Nice! I have seen it about 100 yards away a couple of times.
One night it just kept hitting all round, so we are out on the porch watching since there was no sleeping. The strike hits a big tree behind the neighbor's house, and he screams F~~CK! like a little girl! Serious LOL time.
Click to expand...
Probably not a good idea to be on the porch in a thunderstorm like that.
 
Heh, I see the bark was strewn all over the place. Had a couple of lightning strikes on trees near my house over the years. One jumped to my phone line and took it out! Florida's #1 for lightning, but Colorado's #2.
 
Ken g6 said:
Heh, I see the bark was strewn all over the place. Had a couple of lightning strikes on trees near my house over the years. One jumped to my phone line and took it out! Florida's #1 for lightning, but Colorado's #2.
Click to expand...

My Mom calls me up several years ago, lightning hit and fried her car ECU, then blew a hole in the bedroom receptacle. I thought she was bullshitting but when I got there it was a huge hole, the size of a basketball!, she had already had an electrician come over and replace the breaker and install a new receptacle.
 
Had a friend who almost got hit.

He and his wife were washing the dishes when he noticed a thunderstorm rolling in. They had left the dog outside, so he ran out into the backyard to get the dog.

As he was running to get the dog he felt the hairs on his arm stand up and felt more than saw a bolt arc over his head and hit about 15ft away. Needless to say he dropped the dish towel he'd been holding and took off like a bat out of hell.

The thing was his wife saw this all happen in a reflection off the microwave. So she goes running outside while he's on the other side of the house.

All she finds is a charred area where the bolt hit and the dropped dish towel. She ended up thinking he'd been vaporized. 😀
 
About 15 years ago a person I worked with had her house struck by lightning. Everything in her house that was plugged in was destroyed by it.

In college I was walking back to my dorm room in downpour. Be hind me I heard the loudest crack of thunder and a blinding light. It turned around and a tree was hit and was on fire for few seconds. I took off running to the dorm at that time.
 
Paratus said:
Had a friend who almost got hit.

He and his wife were washing the dishes when he noticed a thunderstorm rolling in. They had left the dog outside, so he ran out into the backyard to get the dog.

As he was running to get the dog he felt the hairs on his arm stand up and felt more than saw a bolt arc over his head and hit about 15ft away. Needless to say he dropped the dish towel he'd been holding and took off like a bat out of hell.

The thing was his wife saw this all happen in a reflection off the microwave. So she goes running outside while he's on the other side of the house.

All she finds is a charred area where the bolt hit and the dropped dish towel. She ended up thinking he'd been vaporized. 😀
Click to expand...
Correct you can feel the charge before it happens.

There was crazy lightning around me recently and I'm on the top floor of my apartment and I could feel when lightning was going to strike but at the same time I could feel it wasn't that strong of a charge and was unlikely to hit me directly but it was a very "hair standing on edge ozone-y smelling-y" feeling. There are some trees and some other apartments that were higher than me so I was confident I was fine.

I guess the water washing dishes increased his conductivity.

It also temporarily scrambles the radio signal. Lightning is cool.

http://stormhighway.com/sferics.php

Its kind of cool that its something obscure that I've observed myself without ever knowing it was a thing. I've actually heard it as a pop on FM stations instead, but from very close hits. I've also heard engine sounds through my speakers on AM bands. Now I know it was the spark plugs. Also cool.
 
Last edited:
I've had lightning hit about 10 feet from me on a road once. It hit the dirt just off to the side. I could see the dirt fly up glowing red from the heat. Freaky stuff 🙂
 
My father, brother, stepmother, and I hiked to the top of Wheeler Peak, the highest point in New Mexico once, when my brother noticed that my hair was partly standing up. We looked around and noticed storm clouds had gathered while we were climbing.We ran off the mountain and back to the car.
 
Lightning struck a house about a mile from my house the night before last. News said it blew off the chimney.

Many years ago lightning hit a tree right across the street. It traveled through the tree into the ground and ruptured an underground water pipe.
 
Mixolydian said:
Lightning struck a house about a mile from my house the night before last. News said it blew off the chimney.

Many years ago lightning hit a tree right across the street. It traveled through the tree into the ground and ruptured an underground water pipe.
Click to expand...


that was one of my fears as the water meter for the house is directly under the bottom of the tree, since the incoming pipe is PVC I might have caught a break there.
 
I've been in 3 houses that have been struck by lightning or indirectly by lightning. The one time we were working on a gas line under a house. I had my left forearm against the pipe when it hit. It left a small scar and sucked all the energy from arm for a while.

The other two times it took out our fridge when I was a kid and 2 years ago it took out my router, nic and vonage device. Hell last year I heard it pop as it grounded against my baseboard heater because I had the cable unplugged for the storm. As far as I'm concerned lightning is going do what it wants.
 
I've never seen a lightning strike very close but I heard one once.

Luckily my electronics never got fried either. My house is not isolated and there's trees around though, a fir got killed once but that's it.
 
Lightning can be very dangerous but ...

The torrential storms and the lightning that they bring are (IMHO) the only thing that makes living in Florida during the summer bearable. The break the heat and bring the temps down to a point where you are much more confortable.
 
Back at the end of May I thought I'd been zapped back into the stone age. Lightning struck nearby the house. I'm no stranger to nearby strikes downing the power. Generally power flips off noiselessly, but this one actually created zapping noise from the wiring. Electrical pops were heard in the house, so I was convinced a power surge had killed most anything plugged in. Amazingly, once nearby utility poles were repaired everything came back to life. It did flip a breaker.

One of those things you only experience once in 30 years.
 
I was in my backyard at my old house, and lightning hit a pole on the back of a garage about 30 feet or so from me. From that time on, I hear thunder, and I'm in a vehicle or under the shelter of a house.

But, just a few years ago, I went out on the porch to watch a huge lightning storm rolling through. I felt funny and heard that high pitched whine at the same time - I didn't even have time to finish putting down my foot as I was midstep as this occurred. FLASH BOOM the tree in front of my house was hit.

I no longer sit out on my porch to watch storms.
 
Wow that's pretty crazy. I'd be so worried about my server stuff. Did it fry anything in your house?

The telecom central office where I work got hit by lightning way back in the day. It blew the GPS antenna right off the roof and damaged a bunch of equipment. Was a nightmare for whoever worked there at the time but have to admit it would have been cool to be inside when it happened. The guy still works there and told me he felt his arm hair lift up, lights started to dim, then BANG. Rather interesting as it shows that there is an initial discharge before it fully flashes. They put up a small self standing cell tower years back, so I imagine that would also act as a lightning rod now. Other than DC power it's all fibre going up and it would probably hit the tower itself and not the antennas which are slightly lower.
 
I get the feeling that the big pointy tower in my city helps to draw away the number of lightning strikes in my area.
 
I hate lightning and bought one of those pager size lightning detectors and watch the lightning strikes on weatherunderground.com. It's not been consistent on the map because I seen cloud to ground lightning strikes and they were never on the map. Positive strikes are the one's to look out for. Those are from the top of the cloud, like 5 times stronger and can travel over 10 miles I guess. Negative strikes come from the base of the cloud.
 
Years ago I heard of a young couple who went walking hand in hand on the beach in a lightning storm.

They both died. 🙁
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top