sharkeeper
Lifer
Just watched this yesterday and the lightning event (even though there was no real thunder!) reminded me when I was a kid growing up. We lived on a chromium mine and lightning most definitely does hit in the same place some times multiple times. That electrical storm brought back memories I had when we had a storm so severe the entire house was illuminated constantly for 10 minutes and the thunder just sounded like a loud, loud roar of a rocket.
Just before it got real close (and dangerous) I noticed something strange about the lightning bolts in this one. They would hit the ground and maintain contact and play across the ground for over a second! One bolt where I could not see it past a house (!) danced around for what seemed three or four seconds. It was still visible when the thunder came and the thunder sounded more like what you would picture a train with 10,000 cars falling off a bridge going over the grand canyon would sound like. It was the weirdest thing.
Then things got worse. All the outlets in the house started snapping like those things you throw on the ground the blow up. Pink, green and red flames started erupting from the receptacles. Every box had a nice burn mark around where this was happening. Just as this buzzing and crackling started there was a nice purple-white glow that eminated from all the windows of the house. I started down the hallway passing each room and seeing the same glow. I remember the sharp smell of ozone. I don't even remember hitting the stairs but when I got down in the basement the room was filled with smoke and the only light was coming from the basement windows, blue-green in colour and flickering like fire. The thunder at this point was just a roar like a shuttle launch! I smelled smoke and there was definitely a fire somewhere. I turned around and noticed a lot of smoke in the laundry room. There was smoke pouring out of the clothese dryer and sure enough there was some linens that were burning probably ignited by a spark either from the dryer vent (piped in with aluminum) or from the mains power as everything in the house was electric.
I knew it was a risk opening the dryer but for some reason I had to do it. I opened the dryer and pulled out all the linens on the floor and stomped on them like mad. It didn't seem like the fire was going out because the room was STILL illuminated by the continuous lightning that was going on. The worst was over and now the thunder was starting to sound like thunder again and more rumbly but still very much continuous like being in a 48 lane house on friday night with all lanes being used.
We lost so much from that storm, appliances, electronics, light bulbs, you name it. The insurance adjusters say they never saw anything like it. Half the cars that had either defroster windows or the antennas in the windshield needed those replaced because they were cracked and the glass had turned straw brown around the wires. Most of those cars also had at least a few bulbs blown out.
We had a trailer and the safety chains could be picked up without drooping as the links were welded together as if someone used a spot welder on them. If anyone was outside during this they would have died.
That storm was a one in a lifetime experience and that movie gave me sweaty palms just watching it because of what I went through growing up.
I've visited that neighborhood recently and some of the trees still stand that were hit by lightning in that storm. Other storms more recently have left their mark too.
Just before it got real close (and dangerous) I noticed something strange about the lightning bolts in this one. They would hit the ground and maintain contact and play across the ground for over a second! One bolt where I could not see it past a house (!) danced around for what seemed three or four seconds. It was still visible when the thunder came and the thunder sounded more like what you would picture a train with 10,000 cars falling off a bridge going over the grand canyon would sound like. It was the weirdest thing.
Then things got worse. All the outlets in the house started snapping like those things you throw on the ground the blow up. Pink, green and red flames started erupting from the receptacles. Every box had a nice burn mark around where this was happening. Just as this buzzing and crackling started there was a nice purple-white glow that eminated from all the windows of the house. I started down the hallway passing each room and seeing the same glow. I remember the sharp smell of ozone. I don't even remember hitting the stairs but when I got down in the basement the room was filled with smoke and the only light was coming from the basement windows, blue-green in colour and flickering like fire. The thunder at this point was just a roar like a shuttle launch! I smelled smoke and there was definitely a fire somewhere. I turned around and noticed a lot of smoke in the laundry room. There was smoke pouring out of the clothese dryer and sure enough there was some linens that were burning probably ignited by a spark either from the dryer vent (piped in with aluminum) or from the mains power as everything in the house was electric.
I knew it was a risk opening the dryer but for some reason I had to do it. I opened the dryer and pulled out all the linens on the floor and stomped on them like mad. It didn't seem like the fire was going out because the room was STILL illuminated by the continuous lightning that was going on. The worst was over and now the thunder was starting to sound like thunder again and more rumbly but still very much continuous like being in a 48 lane house on friday night with all lanes being used.
We lost so much from that storm, appliances, electronics, light bulbs, you name it. The insurance adjusters say they never saw anything like it. Half the cars that had either defroster windows or the antennas in the windshield needed those replaced because they were cracked and the glass had turned straw brown around the wires. Most of those cars also had at least a few bulbs blown out.
We had a trailer and the safety chains could be picked up without drooping as the links were welded together as if someone used a spot welder on them. If anyone was outside during this they would have died.
That storm was a one in a lifetime experience and that movie gave me sweaty palms just watching it because of what I went through growing up.
I've visited that neighborhood recently and some of the trees still stand that were hit by lightning in that storm. Other storms more recently have left their mark too.
