Lightening Strike In My Wife's Hometown

[jonp]

Striking the college radio tower on the hill. Shot is looking down main street taken by one of her kids friends last week.

315786

[Three44s]

That’s quite a catch!

Three44s

[Idaho45guy]

That is awesome! Great photo!

[Txcowboy52]

That is an amazing sight !! Great picture! I would sure not want to be on the receiving end of something like that, awesome power.

[bullet maker 57]

Great picture.

[jonp]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-dJolYw8tnk&pp=ygURSSBoYXZlIHRoZSBwb3dlciA%3D

[BLAHUT]

Been with in 100 yds of this, three times, will get your heart started !!

[bedbugbilly]

What a catch on their camera (I'm guessing phone camera?) They were sure in the right spot at the right time. Ben Franklin should have been out flying his kite!

What town/state?

Thanks for sharing!

[Texas by God]

Been with in 100 yds of this, three times, will get your heart started !!

AND raise your hair if you’re closer than that!
It makes one feel very small and vulnerable!


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[jonp]

What a catch on their camera (I'm guessing phone camera?) They were sure in the right spot at the right time. Ben Franklin should have been out flying his kite!

What town/state?

Thanks for sharing!

Just to the right is the home of Bag Balm. Lyndonville, VT

[rockrat]

Been just under 200 yds a couple of times and one bolt about 100 yds away that hit my neighbors fence charger. Was asleep, but woke up real quick, enough to see the end of the flash. Ruined a TV.

When I was a teenager, was at Grandads house that night and a bolt hit a tree at the end of the driveway, maybe 50 yds away. Never knew about it till I was told about it the next morning. Was sound asleep.

[Sasquatch-1]

Incredible shot. I would have to have it blown up to at least 8x10, framed and place on the wall.

[Shopdog]

Great pic!

As a 10'ish y.o. was over at a cpl friends house. Huge lightning storm kicks up,so their mom made us come in. So the three of us got our noses to the screen door watching and waiting so we can go back outside. Bolt of lightning cracks and splits a cherry tree about 15 yards from the back door. All we saw was a white out of light and the tree going two directions in slow motion.

Was on an unfinished construction job once... concrete slab hadn't been poured on a 5k sq ft cinder block building. Huge lightning storm rolls in and strikes the rebar that had been put in the outdoor entrance. The inside reinforcement wire had not been put in yet so we're standing on dirt/gravel when it hit the front porch. We were 20 feet from it.

Another construction job... we were building this huge brick house right next to another,big brick house. Storm rolls in. We're all waiting it out up in the attic where there wasn't a gable wall yet. Sitting on buckets N such killing time. But we're all just sitting there looking at this next door house..... lightning strikes the 2 1/2 story high chimney maybe 75 yards from us. It looked like a dang howitzer hit that thing. We had bricks showered down almost to where we were.

Amazing power.

[farmerjim]

I have been hit twice by lightning. Once when I was 10 years old on a tire swing on a chain. Lightning hit the chain and burned it in half, and flashes went from my feet to the ground. The other time when I was out fishing in the Louisiana marsh near the gulf. We , my brother and a friend, saw a thunder cloud near us and saw lightning coming out of it. I counted to 15 after a flash before I heard the thunder. No problem, it's 3 miles away. 10 seconds later we were hit, with a blue spark that went between the 3 of us. It was worse than grabbing a hot spark plug wire.
Now if I see lightning anywhere, I go inside.

[bedbugbilly]

Thanks jonp . . . . it just looks like one of those towns that would be interesting to visit . . . . my wife and I spent some time in the Albany, NY area for about six months while she completed an internship for her Masters many moons ago. We didn't have much money, but we did manage to drive up to Vermont a couple of times to look around. At the time, I didn't know that I had a number of ancestors who had lived in Vermont in the late 1700s and early 1800s. A lot of beautiful scenery there!

And Bag Balm . . . . always have had a tin of it around from the time I was a kid - great stuff for the cattle and other animals as well as us humans!

Thanks!

[Texas by God]

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230710/6e3755fb2392098d565d68dad285b189.jpeg
This Post Oak was hit fifteen minutes before the pic was taken. Green wood will burn with enough bolts and amps!
It has since died but some survive somehow.


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[MaryB]

I was riding with my dad when lightning hit a street light 75 feet from the car. Both of us needed to change our underwear... It stalled the car from the pulse, had to push it 3 blocks to the local garage to have it looked at. Took out the electronic ignition module(this was pre computer thankfully!). Set off the alarms at the bank, while we waited for the storm to pass a cop showed up to check the bank alarm, we told him what happened and pointed to the melted street light pole(the arm that came off the wood pole was trashed!). He offered to call a wrecker but we told him it was only 3 blocks to the garage. And downhill so we can push it.

I have had 1 direct hit on my ham radio tower, entire house wiring thrummed in the walls, super white flash, sparks from some of the antenna lines I disconnect... the boom shook the house... I was sitting in the kitchen watching out the bay window and it scared the crap out of me. No damage to anything, I have a LOT of lightning suppression devices and an extensive tower ground system with 30 interconnected ground rods.

[jonp]

Thanks jonp . . . . it just looks like one of those towns that would be interesting to visit . . . . my wife and I spent some time in the Albany, NY area for about six months while she completed an internship for her Masters many moons ago. We didn't have much money, but we did manage to drive up to Vermont a couple of times to look around. At the time, I didn't know that I had a number of ancestors who had lived in Vermont in the late 1700s and early 1800s. A lot of beautiful scenery there!

And Bag Balm . . . . always have had a tin of it around from the time I was a kid - great stuff for the cattle and other animals as well as us humans!

Thanks!

I've traveled onto 6 Continents and have brought that green tin with me every time. Fixed dried hands and feet, waterproofed boots and lubed boolits with it. That smell always takes me back to the farm milking Holsteins

[tinsnips]

Nice picture! My sons house got hit two days ago blew breakers in the panel apart, has no lights ,wife got shocked she was on the phone at the time.

[Rapier]

Just had a real close strike, a rip, crackle, crack boom, job. Went out the driveway to the gate and my 12' double leaf gate controller boxes were all in pieces, blown all over the front yard area. Gate is 400 ft from the house and it is now pouring rain. Will take some drying and a bit of light to check all the connections. Called the gate guy, what did the transformer look like? It shredded the transformer, blew it all to pieces, well probably all the electronics are toast then.
Yep, I figured, looked like a demolition job, inside the boxes was flash burned and it blew the covers off, just the small pieces where the screws were attached, shattered the rest of the covers into small pieces

Only bad thing is the gate controller was plugged into the deep well pump's 220 circuit breaker box by an underground copper line in PVC pipe. No big deal if it just killed that circuit, But the deep well's 4" submersible pump is a whole different story. Pump house, disissembly, crane to lift it, etc. Could get pretty expensive real quick. With a little luck, it did not cross feed in the box.

Lightning is bad stuff when it gets to the ground and we have a lot of strikes around this area..

[georgerkahn]

Great photo -- thanks for posting! Some years back I was lake trout fishing on New York's middle finger lake -- Seneca Lake -- on a very hot, humid day, and I kept hearing what sounded like aluminum foil being crumpled. I looked up at my 8' VHF radio antenna, mounted on a 2' extension, to see sparks coming OFF it, headed skyward. With record speed I raised my down-riggers, pulled in lines, and headed to launch site. When I got there I realized I "lost" my AM/FM/cassette radio, one of my two depth-finders, and my VHF radio! A physics prof at college where I worked told me that lightning goes UP, as well as down... re any injury potential, I was lucky, and he suggested I was lucky to have just lost some electronics. Since, I've bought (and gifted to sons, and friends) an awesome goodie called the Acu-Rite Lightning detector. 315929 I swear by it! Now about $45 USD on Amazon, imho they're worth much more than that! Smaller than a pack of cigarettes, it clips in shirt pocket, golf club bag, or whatever so easily -- and is powered by two AAA batteries.
geo

[john.k]

Had very large dead tree in the yard,had a considerable lean towards the place nextdoor .....which is a McDonalds.......I been worrying about for years ,not worried enough to pay $5k to have it professionally removed though.........anyhoo,its hit by lightning about 6 months ago and shattered from 20 ft up.......pieces broke windows at the Maccas .....but the 20ft left wont fall before I want to sell out.

[MaryB]

I repaired consumer electronic for many years. Worst lightning hit I dealt with hit the TV antenna on the roof, jumped to the 3rd floor bathroom copper pipes then proceeded to explode them when the water flashed to steam... the antenna feed line was vaporized... the house was 3 blocks form the shop and when that strike hit I lost some test equipment... electronics in houses for a 4 block radius were fried if they were on the side of the house facing the strike...

They had to gut that house due to water and explosion damage. When the upstairs pipes exploded it sent shrapnel thru walls and windows. Neighbors house had pieces stuck in her siding. One of the top 10 strikes I had to deal with... the power of nature is frightening!

[MaryB]

Great photo -- thanks for posting! Some years back I was lake trout fishing on New York's middle finger lake -- Seneca Lake -- on a very hot, humid day, and I kept hearing what sounded like aluminum foil being crumpled. I looked up at my 8' VHF radio antenna, mounted on a 2' extension, to see sparks coming OFF it, headed skyward. With record speed I raised my down-riggers, pulled in lines, and headed to launch site. When I got there I realized I "lost" my AM/FM/cassette radio, one of my two depth-finders, and my VHF radio! A physics prof at college where I worked told me that lightning goes UP, as well as down... re any injury potential, I was lucky, and he suggested I was lucky to have just lost some electronics. Since, I've bought (and gifted to sons, and friends) an awesome goodie called the Acu-Rite Lightning detector. 315929 I swear by it! Now about $45 USD on Amazon, imho they're worth much more than that! Smaller than a pack of cigarettes, it clips in shirt pocket, golf club bag, or whatever so easily -- and is powered by two AAA batteries.
geo

Those were feelers looking to connect to a down stroke... I have seen it while driving and peoples car radio antennas had them(back before all the computer junk in cars).

[MaryB]

Nice picture! My sons house got hit two days ago blew breakers in the panel apart, has no lights ,wife got shocked she was on the phone at the time.

If she was on a landline she is lucky it didn't kill her. Landlines were the #1 source of lightning entry into homes when I repaired consumer electronics.

[jonp]

Wife and I were sitting in the kitchen when a bolt struck our house. Immediate thunder 10ft over the roof and scared the Dickens out of us. Rods turned most of it but the stove was fried. I further grounded the house with copper rods off the main and second box.