Direct Hit!!

[The Slab Bacon]

With the violent marauding storms that passed through the mid atlantic states last night, I took a direct lightning hit last night! It was thundering and lightning to beat the band. Pouring down rain and penny sized hailstones. My entire yard was under water, but the sumper pumper was doing fine keeping up with the incoming water.
It was cycling about every 30 seconds, but holding its own. I was down in the basement just to keep a watchful eye on things and crossing my fingers that we didnt loose power.

About 8:00 ( I was tinkering at the bench to pass the time) I heard this ungodly CRACK of the arc!! It was so loud that it took me right up out of my chair!
It was strange that I didnt hear any thunder, just the snap of the spark! I knew that it hit close, but the lights didnt go out. (they had been flickering all evening with the storm). The lights were still on, but my slobbering gun (still in my hand) was dead.
I walked over to the breaker box and found 2 breakers tripped. I reset them and all seemed ok.

After the storm quieted down, I went outside and found that my mercury vapor light on the pole by the garage was out. My neighbor told us that she actually saw it hit the light!! the weird thing about this is that the light is on a pole attached to the garage only 10' above the ground!

the strange thing about it is that with all of my antennas, the trees and other much higher stuff around, it chose the light post to hit!  All is well that ends well (so far)
it seems so far, the only casualties were the mercury vapor light itself, and my 20 year old alarm clock / radio / phone in the bedroom.

Brentina, I was thinking about you as I was mopping up the little bit of water that was running accross the basement floor. I hope you guys up there dont get this one as bad as we did here.

That was a little too close for comfort! I will definately never forget the sound of the
SNAP of that spark!!
                                                    the Slab Bacon

[AJ1G]

You were very lucky not to lose any radio equipment.   I have always made sure my feed lines into the house are disconnected during T storms.  However, a surprise  little t storm early this year may have taken out my Yaesu FT-100D mobile rig in the car.  I had gotten out of the habit of disconnecting the mobile whip's coax from the set over the winter as protection against a hit.  The following morning after a storm passed through, and  idon't even remember hearing a close hit, the radio which had worked fine for five years was dead as a doornail.  There is no obvious sign of a hit in the radio.  Hopefully its repairable.

Lesson learned - dont forget to protect your mobile gear as well as your main home station equipment from lightning hits!

[WA1GFZ]

The Storm Hit East Windsor the worst last night. I was driving through it coming home from the dentist. I couldn't see 50 feet ahead of me. The trees were bent over and branches were falling. Rain was blowing sideways.
Once a maple sapling got hit in my back yard and blew the bark off one side. this is about 60 feet from the tower. Tower was also hit once when I had the place rented.
No damage either time.

[KC4HGH]

I've been in two near-strikes myself, the second of which got both me and my wife.  I was locking the truck door & there was an instantaneous *CRACK*! and blinding light directly from overhead and a spark from the key to the truck door lock- and I heard my wife scream.  I was shaken & numb, but I ran into the house- she was holding her right arm.  She had JUST grabbed hold of the 'fridge door handle when it hit and it numbed her arm up to the shoulder.

When we calmed down, I found it had fried our bedroom's ceiling fan, blown portions of the electrical feedline from the main breakerbox of the house out to the 'shack out of the ground and completely blew the bulbs out of the light sockets- NO glass left!  Hadda use needle-nosed pliers to remove the bulb sockets to screw new ones in.  It also blasted an electrical plug to a fan I had plugged in, but not the light plugged into the same socket- wierd!

Lightening, viewed from a distance, is wonderful, beautiful- and can STILL be dangerous!  You don't have to be near a storm to be hit- hits have been recorded from 10 or more miles away!

Good that you didn't have any more problems than you did!

[WA1GFZ]

One time the family was sitting around the table and the phone rang. My mother reached over her head and picked it up. As she pulled the cord around up to her ear a big spark jumped across the table. She told my aunt there was a storm and hung up. a close one...

[The Slab Bacon]

So far, so good. I will investigate further tonite, but I dont think anything else was fried. I will investigate everything a little more thoroughly tonite. I pulled the cover off of the breaker box and didnt see anything fried or burned. I think the mercury vapor light took the majority of it on the chin. It is on a pole that is driven into the ground. I am curious to examine it to see the total extent of the damage. I will know tomorrow.  they are calling for more of the same tonite
                                                   
                                                     The Slab Bacon
                                       

[W1RKW]

Slab,
I'm glad you weren't hurt or suffered any severe damage to your home.  Count that as a blessing.

I've been jolted twice.  Minor jolts that is.  Last year during a t-storm I was out in the garage waiting for a storm to come through town.  I decided I'd stand in the garage doorway and watch.  I was leaning up against the track of the garage door when a bolt struck nearby, maybe a quarter mile.  It induced a pretty good voltage in the rail of the garage door and got me in the shoulder.  The jolt went down from my shoulder to my right foot.  My whole side was numb and I was shaking like I was out in -20 degree cold. 

Another time many years ago I was on the phone during a storm. I could hear static in the phone line as each lightning bolt struck with in visible distance.  There was one strike that was close by and a spark hit me in the chin.  I wasn't a very strong spark but stronger than your typical reach for the door knob spark and strong enough to wreck the phone too.  Close calls and lessons learned.

Last year there was a guy from my local area who was struck by lightning.  It knocked him out cold.  EMT's pronounced him dead (don't know if they can do that) but nonetheless said they couldn't revive him.  Moments later another EMT noticed that he was breathing.  They got him to the hospital and lived through it though he's not normal anymore.  He has loss of memory, speech disorders and some other problems as a result.  There's more to the story that sort of diverges away from the main subject so I'll leave it at that. 


I'm looking out the window right now and awaiting a storm  that's approaching.  Radar shows it coming this way but I think we'll be on the edge, hopefully.

[K1JJ]

It's interesting how many of us have a false sense of security when we are inside a shelter. We think the "Faraday cage" will fully protect us. We think the laws of physics are cast in concrete with no exceptions. But it's not a perfect whirl.  As Bob just said, lightning has a way of getting into everything and anything it wants. The proof of that is these lightning balls that occassionally fly into a house, bounce around and then leave. I don't know if that stuff has been scientifically proven or is still in the realm of UFO's, but just the same, lightning can propagate to us just about anywhere short of being in a bank vault.

I am still amazed that many, many T-storms come through here, but the 190' towers seem to bleed off the charge and never get hit. I hear and see strikes within a mile quite often, but the towers never get hit. The only hit I remember is back in 1986, the first night the first tower went up. Since then, with the exception of a computer modem crapping out, no direct hits in 20 years at this QTH. It seems like the area is protected by the bleed-off of the towers.  If you drive a mile away and look from the next hill, you will see the towers are fully exposed at the top of an 300' hill. They are screaming to be hit, just like flying a wire kite in a storm, but never get it.  (I'm not complaining...  )  I still disconnect everything, including computers just in case.

T

[k4kyv]

That's why I shut down my computer and disconnect internet cable and a.c. power cords this time of year when I'm not using it.

My old computer got zapped about 4 AM one morning with an unexpected T-storm.  The weather forecast the evening before was for clear skies that night and all the next day.

Lost modem (was on dialup at the time) and sound card.  The monitor screen looked like a rainbow until it eventually demagnetised itself.

[WA1GFZ]

Tom,
Many times it boils down to Ohms law. You carry current and you never develope voltage. Then there is shielding and transfer Z.
 

[w1guh]

Statistics say that mountain tops don't get hit any more frequently than flat ground.  Down the slope from the peak is much more likely to be hit.

I heard that over the weekend a lady down south was praying for her family to be safe as a t'storm passed through the area.  She got hit.

Another case was the guy that got electrocuted while walking across a parking lot with 60' light poles. 

It's pretty random where lightning will strike.  If I'm where I'm really starting to get worried I'll sit out the storm in my car.  Maybe it's not 100% safe, but probably safer than something without a faraday shield.

Also, if you're in the open and worried about being "too tall" DON'T LIE DOWN.  The potential developed by ground currents from lightning can kill you.

But from a distance, man, are the are fascinating to watch.

Oh, and re: ball lightning.  Dunno either if it's real or not, but I'd LOVE to (safely) witness some.

[K1JJ]

An old theory of why a lightning path is taken is that it begins with a cosmic ray. This starts the intial breakdown path. This would explain the randomness of strikes on flat, high or whatever terrain. But, I'm not sure if that theory is still in vogue. I like it, though.

Another thing is they say the the Empire State building gets hit repeatedly during t-storms. That flies in the face of the random strike idea.

I find induction from nearby strikes is quite large. I can hear the guy wires snapping as well as the coax PL-259's popping with strikes as far as 2 miles away. Amazing stuff.

As I type this, the t-storms are moving through the area in the distance. I just heard the antenna switch pop. They will be with us on and off all week.


T

[WA1GFZ]

Yup the guy wires snap with an induction hit and the tuner flashes.
You can't do anything about that except provide a low Z path so no voltage builds up with the current flow.  fc

[W1RKW]

There's a small blurb on the theory of ball lightning at this website.  Not much explaination but interesting.
http://www.stormchasing.nl/lightning.html

Another involving gamma rays and x-rays
http://science.box.sk/newsread.php?newsid=5008

[KB2WIG]

Even I know  not to carry  a 60 foot light pole around during a t storm...  Its just plane stupide ....  klc

[Carl WA1KPD]

Frank
Glad you and the XYL are OK FINE. They say wx runs in 7 day repeats and if you think back to last Friday I was driving home in nasty wx.

I remember as a JN in the 60's watching the Field Strength meter that was part of my SWR meter bounce around from a storm maybe 5 miles away. Left a good impression on me.

Tell Howard (?) I said HI

[WA2TTP Steve]

 Glad you, the house and rigs are ok. Last night an apartment building here in the Albany area had lightning hit a tree next to it and jump to the roof flashing and the whole roof burned down.

About sump pumps. I to have a sump pump that runs several times an hour for much of the year. I built a DC powered backup system years ago using a marine pump, home brew control system and my house UPS battery bank as a supply. The pump failed during the last power outage and I replaced the whole system with one made by "The Basement Watchdog" sold by Lowe's home stores. It works like a champ. It consists of 12 volt DC pump, control unit, float switch, wet cell storage battery and wall wart charger. They make 3 models, the one I got is the "Special", it's the middle of road model. It's not cheap at $380 inc tax. That includes the Pump system, battery, acid and check valve. You also need some 1 1/2 PVC pipe and fittings but that stuff is cheap. This system will cycle for days and will give you peace of mind. It will pump out the sump just a fast as the AC pump. My only negative comment would be about the float switch. It and it's wire are very small. I put split loom over the wire to protect it. The switch is a magnetic reed switch that acts as a high sump limit. Once the pump starts it runs for 25 seconds and shuts off. It pumps out my sump in about 15 seconds.

Below is a link to the manufactures website.

http://www.basementwatchdog.com/battery_backup_sump_pump.htm

73,
Steve
WA2TTP

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Glad to hear everything is OK Frank.

Interesting lightning tracker here.

http://www.strikestarus.com/index.htm

shows lots of action in the mid-Atlantic today!

[John Holotko]

Fortunately your antenna's  probably didn't get but enough of a charge was induced in nearby  objects to cause things to arc to ground. I'vehad that happen heremore than once. And no, surprisingly it doesn'talways hit the highest object.

last night the line of storms was headed right for us. The sky started turning black and I threw my feed lines out the window....  Then the line of storms split and went north and south of my area. So we were spared any real intense storms. We did gewt a lot of rain last  night and tons of it today and the weather generally sucks once again.

[Bacon, WA3WDR]

I was on the top floor of an old Soho-type industrial building that had been refurbished as an office building, and lightning hit the roof at the opposite corner of the building.  It sounded like a bomb, and I knew right away what had happened, because someone had told me what lightning was like when it hits nearby.  It blew a hole in that corner of the roof, and the water poured in, but fortunately nobody was hurt, and surprisingly no equipment failed, either.

[John Holotko]

I was on the top floor of an old Soho-type industrial building that had been refurbished as an office building, and lightning hit the roof at the opposite corner of the building.  It sounded like a bomb, and I knew right away what had happened, because someone had told me what lightning was like when it hits nearby.  It blew a hole in that corner of the roof, and the water poured in, but fortunately nobody was hurt, and surprisingly no equipment failed, either.

Hah, that must have been scary. I remember once hearing a terribly loud crack in the viscinity of my antenna tuner during a storm several years ago. Strangely  nothing was damaged but the digital display on my Dad's stereo went dead but then started working agin a few days later. About two years later the exact chain of events happened again.

I work in a place where I am surrounded by racks upon racks of computing equipment.  We are in a sub-basement of an old office building in what was once a fallout shelter. I'm not too worried about lightening finding me down there. Then again there are power  and network cabled running to all different parts of the building so I suppose anything can happen.

[w1guh]

There there's what might be the most amazing thing about the Apollo program and the robust design of the vehicles.  If you're old enough, do you remember that Apollo 12 took a direct lightning hit during launch?  It blew enough breakers in the Command and Service modules to knock them out but the Saturn V guidance was independant and it kept truckin' along.  When they got into Earth orbit they had enough time to figure out that all that happened was that some breakers blew...they reset them, did what the had to and were off to the moon on schedule. 

Wow.

[WU2D]

Close one Frank - Iv'e got a couple for you.

I was flying Sebena out of Brussells Belgium coming home from a work trip in 1998 and I was on an Airbus. We were flying into a storm and I would say that we were just about at 10,000 and climbing when there was a tremendous bang like a bomb and a blue flash and the lights went out in the plane.

The breakers reset and the lights came back on within 20 seconds. I never heard the engines even  hiccup. Strangely nobody screamed - it was too fast. Then the captain came on with a heavy resigned French accent saying: pardon madame and monseur but we have just experienced zee electrical activity - I assure you that zee lightning is completely normale during zee flight operation.

Then we flew over the ocean to Boston. Drinks were on the airline that night

The other interesting lightning event was when my XYL and myself were just out of college and were living out west. It was August and there was a small storm starting. I was fiddling with the TV and was kneeling about 4 feet from the aluminum screen door in the apartment. Suddenly the door turned bright blue and made a LOUD vibrating noise. The TV did one of those suck downs to a tiny white spot. I felt nothing.

At the same time my wife was in the bathroom at the sink - screaming. She turned to see a blue ball about the size of a basketball come through the door, appear to look around and dive into the bathtub and go down the drain!

WU2D

[David, K3TUE]

Frank, gad to hear all is alright with you and no one got hurt.

At the same time my wife was in the bathroom at the sink - screaming. She turned to see a blue ball about the size of a basketball come through the door, appear to look around and dive into the bathtub and go down the drain!

I had a cousin who lived on a property who got these lightning balls more than once.

[Vortex Joe - N3IBX]

Frank,
       Thank God you,Carol,Henry, and all of your gear are OK,Fine! This was the first time I heard you mention that water got in your shack since you did the repairs on your basement. I would have been freaked out to say the least!

Is everything OK in your workshop outback? Lemme know if you need anything!

Very Best Regards,
                         Joe N3IBX