Thunder and LIGHTNING!

[Riley Smith]

We had a lightning storm yesterday, and of course some rain too. The rain was a relief because it has been un-rain for a week and a half. When it un-rains in Mississippi in the summer, it is miserable, with a capital M. The lightning was pretty intense and I heard a house burned, my friend's electronics got fried, and power was out in various and sundry places. Yep...bad 'un.

If you live here, you WILL have a lightning story. Once upon arriving home in Helena from work, it was so bad once I wouldn't get out of my car pool. It was almost a solid sheet of rain between the car and the door, too.  That's mostly because that land had been previously logged (for paper I presume), and my neighbor and I had the ONLY mature pines within a couple of MILES. Big pines at the end when we moved, standing head and crown above everything else. And I'm serious, they acted as lightning rods when the air was hot and charged.

 There was a young pine on the back of my property line about 8", and halfway up, the heart of a knot had blown out and the tree was weeping sap. That was a stray bolt from the one that hit the BIG pine tree. You know, one of them that is 24-36 inches. Same situation, about half-way up, a fold where the inner had become the outer and was being repaired by new bark on the big pine. Sometimes it kills a tree, but overall those pines usually get through it. Lightning ain't no joke. Remind ne to tell you of the pine tree cable incident.

Yep, wind, rain, and LIGHTNING. Strangely, the whole thing circled our place and we only got a sprinkle and a breeze, but it sounded like a war zone all around us. I stayed inside the whole time, but we never got a close strike here, either. Thank goodness. As it was, I was glad to get a sprinkle to keep the plants alive.

[noelH]

Not a big fan of thunder and lightning. Especially if out on the water. One reason August weather sort of creeps me out. Like yesterday. Just partly cloudy, for up here relatively humid, warm, and 0-5kt breeze.  Boom. Checked my Lightning Pro iPhone app. Middle of the Bay hit. Looked out the window. Big thunder boomer clouds forming. Hope was for some rain, no hail, no high winds. Nada. Cleared up.

My neighbor a few years back had a direct hit on their well. In addition to inconvenient a bit expensive repair. There is a section of trail NW of the property by ~2 miles that is scarred with the remnants of multiple lighting hits. Not a good place for some reason if you are a tall tree. Or human sanding too close to a tall tree. A few years ago inland a tree was hit. The electrical jolt traveled underground (wet roots?) and proceeded to more or less blow up the garage or shed adjacent to the tree.

Today a pleasant gentle rain. No thunder, bolts, or wind. We need the rain. Only a trace of rain this month until today. Harvested the garlic ~3 weeks ago. Bed has remain unused. So dry the bed was more or less weed free.  Yesterday transplanted some radish seedlings. Totally dry bed for several inches.

[Frank B.]

It has been awhile since I've had close calls with lightning.  I remember the last time well.  Coincidentally, Charley McLemore and Issy were driving through the night from SC to Tupelo as his father, who lived in West Point was taken to the North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo after a heart attack. Charley sent out a message that he wanted all on this forum to send messages to keep him awake during the drive.  He started rating them rather critically, wanted more substance and humor.  In the middle of the night we were awakened by the dreaded sirens as a super storm came through the area.  Lightning struck the house across the street, setting it on fire and hit several other in my neighborhood. We had emergency vehicles, fire trucks all over the place, noise and chaos as someone in the neighborhood also had a heart attack.  I texted Charley that I wish he would find someplace else to go as it is a known fact that wherever he and Issy go all hell breaks loose.  I won the best text award that night.

[Riley Smith]

My dear departed brother-in-law was a hunter and gun enthusiast. He had all kinds of guns, ammo, and re-loading equipment and for long years, stored that stuff in an empty bedroom. Once a lightning bolt hit a little ole bitty oak tree in his yard about five inches in diameter, and traveled along a root towards the foundation of the house, blowing dirt everywhere. And then it ARCED on a piece of the rebar embedded in the concrete there. Just so happens it also burned the carpet in that bedroom. Luckily a cardboard box of BLACK POWDER was sitting on top of the spot and there was nothing but a fifty-cent sized piece of charred carpet in the bedroom. The pyrotechnics were promptly banned from the house by my sister!

[Brian N.]

One time while racing in the local ensign fleet a storm rolled in super fast, and the fleet headed in, but not before the lightning show with heavy, heavy rain and gusts. Felt like the storm scene in Forest Gump. Lucky no boats were hit and everyone made it in.

[Doug SC]

Living on a lake in Florida as a teen We watched many a lightning storm. Watch some spectacular light shows across that lake. This was near Tampa in Americas Lightning belt that runs across Florida along the I-4 corridor. This area gets the most strikes per square mile than almost anywhere else in the world. I loved watching those storms.

I have been caught miles out in the Salt marshes on the SC coasts while sea kayaking several times, and more than once while canoeing rivers in Florida. My dad has had several trees hit and killed in his yard in Longwood, FL.

I have watched the intense lightning associated with 2 different tornadoes. One went through the paper route we had just delivered as we were driving home at 6 in the morning. Another was 3 miles north of our house here in SC where I had been scouting the woods on a hunting lease just 30 minutes before heading home to avoid the storm.

I was with a close friend coming back from doing some fisheries work in the Orlando area at night on the turnpike headed to Gainesville, FL. The lightning was hitting all around use for miles and would light up the world with each strike. It was most impressive.

Then there was the time I was working at adding on a garage to a house. The family had a new well added and the pressure tank was installed in the already dried in garage. We took shelter inside the garage when the storm hit. There were 4 of us sitting in a half circle fairly close to the tank when a bolt of lightning hit the well and a bluish fire ball exploded from the tank and shot across the garage between the four of us without touching anyone but did singe the leg hairs on the one man that it came closest to. The well was about 90 feet from the house.

[noelH]

You cannot view this attachment.Relatively humid and warm. Partly cloudy sky over the house (blue dot)to mostly cloudy sky looking S. Another calm August day. Thunder boomers in the distance. Column of clouds rising like smoke or dark grey clouds. Image is from just a few moments ago. Another day not to be out on the Lake. No wind, bit of lightning.

[Doug SC]

I forgot about my wife's uncle who died when stuck by lightning in his cow pasture in SC. That was before I knew her. If I remember correctly from some of the story's here CB is a human lightning rod.

[Charles Brennan]

Doug, While it is true I have survived 4 lightning strikes, I really don't think of myself as a "lightning rod".  Those gadgets are designed to take hits! All my hits were accidental!! 

1) 2 doors down from Eric Clapton's "461 Ocean Boulevard" was a high-rise where I was installing a TV antenna on for the residents to have a MATV (Master Antenna TeleVision)  for their building and the afternoon thunderstorms were coming in off the ocean.
And we were THAT close to being finished installing the antenna.
Had just closed the roof hatch, climbed down the steel ladder and jumped the last three feet to the ground, when the antenna up top, took a hit.
So, how do you get hit by lightning in an enclosed equipment room? 
The bolt traveled down the coaxial cable and the heat caused the foam in the coaxial cable to expand so quickly, the cable stood on end, like a snake rearing up and while breaking apart into dozens of pieces, the electrical surge arced out from the various pieces of center conductor and hit me, my buddy, the steel ladder I had just left, and various and sundry metal objects all around the room.
Quite the light show. 
Me and my buddy missed most of it, since we were on the floor, protecting our heads from the worst of it.  I figure I got zapped a half-dozen times and my buddy estimated he got about the same number of hits.  Protecting us from certain death was the current limiting of the center conductor, so we only got a fraction of the energy from the strike.  Only a few seconds, but it FELT like it went on all afternoon! 

2) Townhouses out in Davie, Florida also with a common antenna. After my experience, years previous, I always made it a point to ground the mast before installing the antenna.  Good Thing.  I was pretty sure I could get the antenna installed, before those dark clouds came in any closer.
Uhhh . . .. . no.
Mast took a hit as I was tightening the antenna bracket with a 7/16" nut-driver.
The bolt traveled down the mast and MOST of the surge went harmlessly down the grounded mast.
But.
There's this thing the engineers call "skin effect" where high voltages and surges tend to travel down the outside of a conductor. The skin effect of this surge was sufficient to arc-weld the nut-driver to the mast bracket nuts, imparting enough heat (and incidentally, causing my muscles to violently contract) that I made what looked like a bicycle hand grip on the suddenly-melted fluting on the nut-driver.  The strike continued down my body and made a quarter-sized blister on the bottom of my sole exiting a small hole in my sneaker, where I had (almost) stepped on a nail a few weeks before, as it knocked me off the ladder and into oblivion!   
The rain caused me to come to, just about the time my buddies got onto the roof to check on me.
Still have the nut-driver with the welded-in nut inside the driver. Apparently, I broke it off the antenna bracket when I went down.

3) (The Bad One.)
Construction site in northern Miami-Dade County and me and a laborer were waiting on a crane to lower a cable so we could get a heavy roll of coaxial cable up to the roof.  (Elevators not in, yet.)
STANDING ON THE GROUND should be safe, no?!?    
So when the strike hit the crane the surge traveled down the crane cable and struck the ground evaporating all moisture in about a 8 foot diameter circle. I didn't see that, since by this time, me and the laborer were both out.  Laborer got it much worse than me; his heart stopped and only a plumber who was taking EMS training, was able to keep his heart going, until the paramedics got there.
And getting there took some doing.
They had sent for two ambulances for the two casualties and entering the construction site, one ambulance was T-Boned by a cement truck.  The other ambulance avoided the accident, but they didn't know what to do with two guys in a single-patient ambulance.  Since I was merely unconscious, they laid me on the floor and kept working on saving the laborer.
(Who was in the hospital for nearly a month, waiting for his kidney function to come back.)
Coming to in an ambulance, is never a desirable thing. 
Besides the "what did I do THIS time?" aspect, it's very disorienting, having someone leaning over and across you and occasionally kneeing you out of the way to work on someone else and you have no way to get clear.
They wanted to keep me overnight after I came to, but being 25 and therefore, bullet-proof, I refused and called a buddy for a ride back to my truck at the job-site
 and came home late.
"You're late." Said the wife.
"Yeah, tough day." I replied.
Never did tell her, until one of my buddies inadvertently mentioned it at a barbecue.
Why she's always insisted on having me heavily insured, throughout our marriage. 

4) (Minor.) Can we guess, this time?
Antenna on a luxury condo on Key Biscayne, OF COURSE!
Watching those dark clouds coming off the ocean and telling a co-worker (NOT a buddy) we had to get off the roof, like now.
"Don't be a wussy!"     (Or words to that effect.) He sneered.
Retorted: "Hey! Talking Real Brave there, but if you don't think the Boss would stand up here and sign your check with a gold pen, then it's time to get off the roof!" 
He repeated his previous remark.
Now, just before a strike, there is a lot of electrons shuffling around up and down as the charge builds up to the detonation point of the actual strike.  I could feel the electricity on the hairs of my arm increasing, so I suddenly grabbed the mast with one hand and outstretched my hand to my annoying co-worker and got a reasonably satisfying ¼-inch arc from my hand to his shoulder.
He CRAWLED across the roof to the exit door, with me mocking him, whistling and encouraging him along, like you would a shy dog.  "Tweeet! Tweeet! Come on boy! You can do it!!  Come on!" 
Since it was quitting time, both "Big And Brave" and I went across the street to a convenient, convenience store, and watched the REAL lightning strike blow our antenna to smithereens.

NONE OF THOSE WERE MY FAULT!! 

It's the ones that WERE my fault, that embarrass me! 
One weekend in lobster season, the weather looked iffy, but I figured if I zipped out there on my RIB, made my first dive, kept my surface interval to the bare minimum and then finished up going after lobsters on the second dive and zipped back at a high rate of speed I could get out and back in, before the incoming storms from out in the Gulf Stream, caught up to me. 
At least, that's how it looked on the radar.
(Best Maxwell Smart impression: ) Missed it by THAT much! 
After the second dive and heading in, the storm started overtaking me, no surprise when it's doing 25 knots and I'm doing 15 knots and worse, it was forcing me to take an angled course back to Port Everglades.  Finally, I just started heading west,figuring if worst came to worst, I'd beach the boat and take cover in somebody's multi-million dollar shelter.
Less than 50 yards from the beach, heading south and passing a crane, participating in a future Marriott, the crane took a BAD hit! 
Besides the surge, the lightning, the BOOM!, and the "skin effect" you know what else lightning strikes can do?!? 
Put out a heck of an RF pulse.  You've heard it on your car's FM radio any number of times, the flash and then the "SCHNICK!" over the radio.
The RF pulse was sufficient to freak out my outboard's CD ignition and stall my motor dead.
More freaked out than scared  I was wondering if I was going to have to row the last 50 yards to the beach, and if I really wanted to.
But, ever the optimist, I pulled the starter rope and the motor immediately came back to life and I HAULED @$$ through the Port Everglades inlet in a blinding, pelting rain and got to John U Lloyd State Park and sat in my truck for a long, long, time. 

While I've personally had four hits, my sailboat, Urchin has only had two.
(Of course I was on board, both times.)
And knew I was lightning-adjacent, but didn't actually know I'd been hit.
A) One strike in south Biscayne Bay struck the water perhaps 50 to 100 feet off my stern, went down to the bottom (all 8 feet of water) and hit coral rock and the sudden steam blew chunks of rock everywhere, including one grape-fruit sized hunk that landed in the cockpit, amidst lots of gravel-sized rocks.
Missed me, of course, since I was inside the cabin curled up in a fetal position, studiously avoiding chain plates, mast step plates, keel bolts and battery switches!   
Figured the strike had missed me, until back at the ramp, I discovered my mast step bolt was welded to the mast step plate on one side. 
Had to saw it off on the one side with the hacksaw from the tool box. The filed-smooth groove is still visible on the mast step bracket, 40 years later.
B) Another weekend, another near-miss?
Well, only until I retrieved the boat back at the ramp and noticed a jagged carbonized trail going from the port shroud down the hull to the water line. Actually etched into the gel coat a little.  Never completely went away until I re-painted the boat a few years ago.

I would not wish this life, on anybody! 
Every time I'm with my family, as soon as ANY thunder is heard, everybody scatters away from me, like cockroaches, when you turn on the kitchen light, at night! 
Kinda gives a guy, a right lonesome feeling!! 

True stories,
Charles Brennan

[Doug SC]

WOW! That's shocking! I guess you have an Electric personality. Glad to have you around to tell the stories.

[Riley Smith]

Heck, everyone knows that CB puts off this energy... Good stories Charles, I enjoyed 'em! I've only been electrified by lightning once when a tornado rolled in on Halter Marine and they knocked the whole shipyard off BEFORE it got to the facility. UNHEARD of! They would ALWAYS wait until the rain made it impossible to do any work. We had made it to the parking lot and was putting someone's motorcycle in the back of a truck to keep the rider dry. Because there was absolutely no doubt the stuff was fixin' to hit the fan, when lightning hit somewhere close. There were about five people picking up the little Honda and lifting it into the bed and everyone got a tingle.

[Norm L.]

I've told this bit before.
A nice size sailboat hauled out in a local boat yard. It gets hit by lightning and a fire starts inside.
The solution? The fire department chopped a hole in the side to get to the fire.
In hindsight I wonder if the boat belonged to someone that wasn't on the right side of the fire department.

[Riley Smith]

Stranger things have happened! I can see not wanting a conflagration and the fact that the enclosed part of a boat can become a BOMB    There was an instance on the beach at the Labrot House where the remnants of a cedar tree got struck it is theorized. To add credence to that theory, the control card to the instant hot water heater got fried at the same time. And the tree started burning a few days later. Anyway, my neighbor ( now deceased) had to call the fire department to come put out the hollow rocket stove across the street, not once, but TWICE!

[Captain Kidd]

I've been told my grandfather was struck by lightning. As the story goes, he was holding onto a fence which they say saved his life. Once our townhouse took a hit and blew out some circuits and a few small appliances as I recall.

My biggest lightning story took place 25 years ago while we were in NC. An afternoon storm blew through. At one point there was that loud crack which meant the strike was close. I peered out the back sliding glass doors but didn't see anything. Shortly thereafter, an orange glow could be seen through said doors. My wife commented, "Oh, look. The sun is coming out." I thought - too early in the day for the sun to be orange. I looked out the doors and my newly built storage shed was fully ablaze! I had built it out of old sawn oak lumber planks that I got my from grandfather's farm. They were like tender. Called the fire department. My neighbor ran over and said, "grab the water hose." I told him it was way past water hose time, grabbed the camera instead and got some good shots.

The fire got so hot it melted my push mower's motor down exposing the piston! I don't know that I recovered anything from that shed.

As it turned out, the lightning hit the tree next to the shed, went down the trunk, over to the shed and presto! The tree eventually died.

After all settled down we decided to get out for a bit. We left a note for out daughters who were out, "gone to store, shed burned down". They beat us home and found the note, curt but accurate.

My insurance company was very good and gave me 100% of what I asked for with the exception of my yellow Schwinn Continental 10-speed bicycle. I paid a little over $100 for it as a young teenager. Replacement cost was near $1000. They asked if I'd take $500. I agreed. With my settlement, I rebuilt the shed and used $1000 left over to put towards my first sailboat, Flying Lady, my Kells Coaster 23!

Edit: just did a quick search and found a pic of a yellow Continental! Just like mine! I even had a generator and light just like the pic. I used to ride that bike to work at the Bonanza Steak House and later through the streets and hills of Lynchburg, VA during my college years.

You cannot view this attachment.

[Norm L.]

Interesting story, and as a distance bike rider, a nice bike.
But the Lynchburg part got my interest. Our daughter-in-law is preparing to move there. She has spent a lot of time scoping it and real estate and is ready when her house sells. It is probably a little different than when you were there. There are a number of wineries in the general area.