Lightning strikes on house

Have you ever witnessed one? When I was in high school the house directly across the across the street got hit. Fortunately the damage was confined to an upstairs bathroom. It sounded like a bomb going off and blackened the bathroom. House 2 doors down got hit a while back but just took out some electronics.

My house took a hit in the chimney when we were home. Knocked out the air handler in the attic and a few other electronics.

It was.an earth shattering kaboom

saw a large transformer take a direct hit back in the 60s huge fireball and made a big mess in the street.

have seen trees take direct hits in colorado, you don't want to be in a tent in the woods when a bad storm hits up there.

3 years ago the next door neighbors pine tree got hit, still has the scar running down the length of it.

A few years ago, lightning hit a large pine tree in our front yard about 2:00 a.m. It sounded like a bomb blew up and I think I jumped straight up out of the bed. Right after dawn I went out to survey for damage and found I was walking on very wet, soggy yard. It seems the strike hit the top of the pine, came down about halfway and transferred to a limb of a big mulberry tree that was touching the pine. The lightening came down that limb and then went to ground at the base of the mulberry, where it struck the valve of the sprinkler system. When that thing was replaced, it looked like it had blown up from inside out.

I've never seen one strike a house, but I have been in uncomfortably close proximity of a couple. One was within 100 feet. Even closer for my friend. Pretty sure he soiled himself on that one.

Few years ago my roof got hit. I pulled up in the alley and neighbor said your house got struck, I went in the attic area and couldn't find anything or fire.

My icemaker was dispensing ice into kitchen floor and it had been going so long it smelt burnt, Destroyed a couple of TV's, a few laptops, Roomba, and killed some of my SONOS speakers.

Very random how it spread, I did have one Desktop on a surge protector which proved ineffecitive.

Here's what happens when lightning strikes a wind turbine:

https://www.news9.com/story/62f3a9f...after-storms-move-through-custer-county-

It's happens pretty often. Been on a nmbunch of those calls over the years.

Saw lightning strike a tree a mile away from my house. That was a spectacular explosion. Scared the heck out of me.

I was watching the pouring rain from the “safety” of my garage one day and lightning hit a transformer on the corner of my lot. Well…I can surely say that it was probably the loudest thing I’ve heard, and felt. The repercussion rattled lawn equipment hanging on the wall. Crazy…my power didn’t go out. Only the folks across the street lost power.

One of my oak trees was hit a few years ago. I wasn’t home to hear it, but it has a huge crack in it. It seems to be doing ok. The crack has started to grow over a little.

Powerful stuff, and one of the few things that will have me beaching my boat and taking cover quick. Rode out a hail storm tucked under the passenger console once. That sucked.

Never a house but seen a tree or two hit. Worst was transformer in the panhandle of Oklahoma early 90’s. Work sent couple of us to a power plant on Southwest Kansas to replace old panel board controls with a modern control system. Bad weather flying into Amarillo’s. Somewhere in the panhandle of Oklahoma lighting struck a transformer right as we passed by it. It rained fire all over that rental car. Scared the [censored] out of me and the guy with me. It lite the sky up like daylight and blew that transformer into pieces.

My neighbor (1/2 mile away) had his house hit in May. Blew the roof up in one corner. Ended up getting the whole bedroom redone on the inside, some structural roof repair and new shingles.

I have tree strikes all the time around here. Usually ends up killing the tree. The latest victim is a huge old grand redoak. Got his summer of 2021 and combined with this drought/heat has succumbed this year. The strike on the oak slashed the trunk for 30' down to the ground and threw chunks of bark 50'-60'. Hate to lose this massive tree.

Seems in my area the lightning storms are more intense and frequent than years ago!

I was on a Southwest flight from Albuquerque to Love Field and was hit by lightning somewhere in New Mexico. They diverted us to El Paso and we changed planes and was on our way.

Some might say the cause is "climate change" (formerly known as global warming and prior to that as global cooling).

I have a buddy that was fishing with his dad along the bluffs on Texoma. Lightning struck the bluff and then hit him in the knee. Fortunately the charge was fairly weak after hitting the bluff.

I have watched two houses on my block burn due to lightning strikes. One happened 2 years ago and the other earlier this year. One was completely gutted and re-done. Nice new fence, two new vehicles, the whole deal. The other is still sitting with tarps stretched over where the roof used to be. I'll see if I can find the pictures.

When I was five or six a tree across the street got hit.

In college there was a strike real close to the house I was living in about 3:00 in the morning. The static discharge turned on the fluorescent desk lamp in my room

Check these out.






https://scitechdaily.com/unraveling...g-bursts-that-reach-50-miles-into-space/

That's some real life 'Big Bang Theory' kinda stuff right there.

My parent's house got hit when we lived in Duncanville back in the early 80's. If I recall correctly, we only had the tv fried because they had some lightning rods installed.

A tree at our place in CP got zapped. I was at work and got a call from the wife and said we were hit. She went outside with a friend who was staying with us and as she was smoking a cig, she told me she smelled something rotten. I asked if she was smoking, relied yes and I told her to move away quickly. The tree rocked enough to puncture the nat gas line. Yipee! Had the tree removed and line fixed. Zapped our micrwave, living room TV, a TV upstairs, coffee pot and her laptop. It was the same tree that blew down during the tornado that hit the house in 1997. Same storm that spawned the Jarrell tornado.

In 2006, saw a strike hit a neighbor's two way radio antenna. Scared the hell out of me as I was sitting in the garage watching the storm.

I was trying to sneak in the house quietly one night after I stayed too long at a buds house playing pool and drinking beer. It was drizzling when I pulled into the driveway and the instant my foot hit the ground getting out of my truck, lightning hit the power pole behind my house about 60' from me. It blew the top insulator off the pole and the top transmission line fell onto the two transmission lines beneath it. The combination of arcing between the three lines and the wet pole created this crazy super bright multi-colored light show that would make you think He was making his return. This lasted a few minutes and it was loud, amazing, and scary all at the same time. Worst part was that it woke the wife (and the rest of the street) and she got all pizzed off because she thought I caused all that by being drunk and screwing around with something in the garage. It's always my fault.

Yup sounds about right . Mine would have been in the front door way tapping her foot , arms cross , with “the look “ on her face and first words out of her mouth would be “ WHAT DID YOU DO !?” 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Lighting stikes are funny as is electricity in general. They exit randomly it seems . In the garage door biz ( mostly in metal buildings , shops , barndos, ect..) the structure will get hit and might burn up a operator and the one next to it be fine or it might get all of them . They will do strange things after the fact due too the fried circuit board and/or not work at all and you’ll find nothing but black soot when you pop the cover . Or some how it will seem to travel thru the op and smoke the wall control and the operator will be just fine . It’s a common occurrence to get a tidal wave of service calls after a good thunder storm . Seen some weird stuff .

Got hit right on the peak of our roof in my old house. Blew a hole through two sheets of roof decking, so 16 feet long. Yard and attic looked like a war zone with bits of shingles and plywood particles blown everywhere. Knocked out a bunch of electronics, but it was totally random. TV and dvd player were knocked out but cable box would be fine on one circuit. On another the cable box was fried, but xbox and TV were fine. Also killed the water heater in the attic, and fried all three AC units and one thermostat.

Dealing with State Farm was a kick in the nuts. They made us right in the end, but it took a tremendous amount of effort on my part to get there.

Some lightning strikes are caused by cursing. During the 1800, cattle-drive days, no cowboy worth his salt would cuss during a thunderstorm.

Dang that looks like a major pain in the [censored]

Not lightning but an earlier post reminded me of something. Growing up our yard backed up to Canyon Creek golf course and the power poles were between our yard and the course. One of the neighbor kids threw an iron up and the head contacted the top wire while the shaft hit a bottom wire. The shaft exploded and some of the pieces hit my brother in the back. The head of the club was forever welded to the wire.

A few years ago, lighting hit my neighbors dish. It was loud and bright, and the surge opened my garage door.

2 houses on our street were struck by lightning, about 8 months apart. Oddly enough our street name is Highplains and we probably are the highest elevation for quite a ways.

Don’t stand under a tree during a storm

diving thru Utah as a kid --we were on vacation , we were approaching the storm and my dad was teaching me to learn to count between the lightning strike and hearing the thunder , number keep getting smaller and smaller each time -- then boom , right next to our car ---maybe 20-30 feet --- loudest sound and brightest flash I have ever seen .
In the midwest , every small farm had lightning rods --maybe 30-40 feet tall , taller than the barn or house --always seemed like a good idea . We had a radio tower across from my grandparents farm -- maybe half a mile away --- it was easily 200 feet tall . The dam thing got hit all the time during a storm .

my neighbors house was hit
& the lightning was stuck in his dryer
you could hear it
firemen opened the dryer door & a ball of lightning shot out
crazy

When I was young, way before my teen years, there was a drainage ditch that was concreted running for about a mile from town out into the Neches River marsh in Port Neches. Lightening hit it (probably had some exposed rebar) and blew about a 15 foot section of the sidewall out. That was pretty awesome. I was about 250 yards away at a friends house in his folks garage watching it rain.

When I was a teenager, I was flying back from Laredo in a DC 3, AKA The Green Monster, to Hobby Airport in Houston and saw a lightning bolt strike a weather vane on a barn. Never forget it....

Sitting in our living room doing homework (mid-60s) and it struck the antennae about 20' away . The light fixture exploded and showered me with glass but nothing else was harmed , even the TV was fine .

Our dog who was sleeping in the carport freaked out and ran to my grand's house about 1/4 mile away .