Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

ALMOST BEEKEEPING - RELATED TOPICS => FARMING & COUNTRY LIFE => Topic started by: Robo on July 19, 2009, 08:12:17 am

Title: Lightning Strike
Post by: Robo on July 19, 2009, 08:12:17 am
Thursday night we had a lightning strike about 50 feet from our house.   It actually took out two trees. One it snapped off like a tooth pick and set it against another tree.  The other it blew the bark off.  Found some pieces 30 feet away.   About 5 years ago, it took out a tree about 10 feet from these.  That time it actually blew the underground dog fence unit of the wall in out garage.  This time we just lost cable (and phone/internet) until last night.

(http://www.bushkillfarms.com/gallery2/d/2191-2/IMG_3071.JPG)
(http://www.bushkillfarms.com/gallery2/d/2194-2/IMG_3072.JPG)
(http://www.bushkillfarms.com/gallery2/d/2197-2/IMG_3075.JPG)
(http://www.bushkillfarms.com/gallery2/d/2200-2/IMG_3076.JPG)
(http://www.bushkillfarms.com/gallery2/d/2203-2/IMG_3077.JPG)
Title: Re: Lightning Strike
Post by: Irwin on July 19, 2009, 10:01:59 am
I'm glad that your back online. Did the lightning start any fires around your place.
Title: Re: Lightning Strike
Post by: JP on July 19, 2009, 10:07:30 am
Glad you and yours are ok Rob, its amazing how powerful lightning is and how easily it travels, with virtually no barriers. Now you will have to make some fire wood.


...JP
Title: Re: Lightning Strike
Post by: Kathyp on July 19, 2009, 11:38:54 am
glad it missed you.  great pics.  did you feel it?  that's such a creepy feeling.
Title: Re: Lightning Strike
Post by: dpence on July 20, 2009, 12:59:26 am
Wow, close call.  Ozone aroma I can bet.
Title: Re: Lightning Strike
Post by: Brian D. Bray on July 21, 2009, 02:15:53 am
Lightning strikes can be real spooky when they hit close.  I had it happen to me 4 times so far.  Twice the bolt either tore of a limb or the bow of the try when hit.  The limb and the bow fell just feet from me.  The electrical energy running down the trunk to the ground lit my hair up like a neon sign and made it stand on end so tight I thought it would come out.  The other 2 times were quite as close, they missed me by at least 2 feet.
Title: Re: Lightning Strike
Post by: Robo on July 21, 2009, 10:29:29 pm
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Did the lightning start any fires around your place
Nope, we're pretty lucky around here,  for all the lightning we get,  very very few fires. Probably because it is usually raining so hard.  In fact this time it was raining so hard my gutters where overflowing, even though they where clean.

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Now you will have to make some fire wood.
Yuppers, this will make it to the wood furnace this year.  Least this one is still pretty much in one piece.  Had one get hit a few years ago and it just obliterated it,  splintered it up into pieces that weren't even worth dealing with for firewood.

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did you feel it? 
Kinda.  I was upstairs in the office on the computer sitting next to an open window.  It is more the surprise than anything else that gets you.  The white out and sound where simultaneous which is a little different than you normally experience.

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Ozone aroma I can bet.

Actually I didn't even notice.  You can usually smell it, but this time there was more of a smell of something burning.  In fact I was down in the basement checking for something burning when my wife spotted the tree.

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Lightning strikes can be real spooky when they hit close.  I had it happen to me 4 times so far.

Yes, we seem to get a tree hit every year.   The closest I've gotten was when I was in high school and for my AP physics project we where measuring for fall out from Chernobyl (dating myself now)  I was outside collecting the first runoff from the roof and the lightning hit so close,  I could feel the heat. 

Title: Re: Lightning Strike
Post by: JP on July 22, 2009, 12:31:06 am
Tomorrow, I'll tell a lightning story, too tired tonight to go into it.


...JP
Title: Re: Lightning Strike
Post by: Irwin on July 22, 2009, 11:06:49 am
Tomorrow, I'll tell a lightning story, too tired tonight to go into it.


...JP
That's because you ate to much crab :-D
Title: Re: Lightning Strike
Post by: JP on July 22, 2009, 12:16:55 pm
Alright, quick story. When I was a very young toddler, in fact, just outta the oven, my dad would play ball every chance he could as he was obsessed with sports growing up.

My mom insisted this one particular day that she wanted him home for some reason, his mom, my late grandmother insisted he miss the game to be with my mom and I as my mom needed some help with me (young brat Cindi! Ha! :evil:) and some alone time.

If you knew my dad, you would know a man that never misses a practice session let alone a game, God forbid!

Well somehow the two women tugged and pulled and wouldn't you know it, they got their way.

Long story short, the guy that replaced my dad that day was struck by lightning during the game and it killed him stone cold, even blew his shoes off.

So how about that? This brat could've been a bastard.


...JP
Title: Re: Lightning Strike
Post by: Natalie on July 22, 2009, 01:07:46 pm
Wow Jp, thats crazy. Let this be a lesson to all you men to do what we tell you or you die.
I say that to my husband all the time ;)
Seriously though intuition is a thing to pay attention to.
I have a similar story as well, my mother begged my father to cancel plans for a flight he was suppose to be on because she had a bad feeling, they argued for a while and he finally relented.
The plane crashed and everyone was killed.
Gotta listen to your instincts.

Robo, I am so glad that no one was hurt and there wasn't any damage to your house.
Its amazing how loud lightening is, we had one a few years ago that took out some trees and a brand new picnic table and some of my fence. Luckily we only had slight damage to the roof and gutter.
But the noise itself when it hits that close is just unreal.
Title: Re: Lightning Strike
Post by: Scadsobees on July 22, 2009, 01:25:34 pm
Lightning strikes can be real spooky when they hit close.  I had it happen to me 4 times so far.  Twice the bolt either tore of a limb or the bow of the try when hit.  The limb and the bow fell just feet from me.  The electrical energy running down the trunk to the ground lit my hair up like a neon sign and made it stand on end so tight I thought it would come out.  The other 2 times were quite as close, they missed me by at least 2 feet.

Whoa....You must be bad! I don't know what you did to deserve that, but you can be really thankful God has bad aim!!
 :-P :-D :-D :-D
Title: Re: Lightning Strike
Post by: annette on July 22, 2009, 07:24:16 pm
Yes these are amazing stories and what experiences to have had.

Lightning just strikes fear in me out here because we are so dry and every lightning storm starts a fire someplace.

Hey JP, Your being a brat was a good thing back then, right?

Natalie, that is unbelievable about that plane crash. I am just curious what plane crash that was if you don't mind telling me, because I had a very good friend who died in a plane crash and her sister backed out the last minute.
Title: Re: Lightning Strike
Post by: Natalie on July 22, 2009, 08:20:51 pm
Annette, my dad was a navy man, chief petty officer and he use to have to go up on flights regularly.
My dad bought us a mile from the base but he lived with us.
My mother woke up one day before my dad left for the base and told him that something bad would happen to him today and told him he shouldn't leave.
When she found out he was scheduled to do some type of flight with some other guys my mother started begging him not to go.
My dad is a very quiet stubborn man and really loved to fly and they went round and round and usually my mother gives up when my father has his mind made up about something because she knows you can't win, but she went completely hysterical by the time he was ready to leave.
Now my father had gone overseas and been in all kinds of situations during the 20 years he was in the Navy and she took that as part of the job but for some reason this just set her off.
She kept telling him something bad would happen and he has all these kids to think of, it got to the point he didn't know what to do with her and even though he didn't believe her he changed his plans.
Title: Re: Lightning Strike
Post by: annette on July 23, 2009, 01:01:04 am
What a story Natalie!!! Thank goodness he respected her enough to finally give in.
Title: Re: Lightning Strike
Post by: Cindi on July 23, 2009, 03:02:28 pm
Oh Rob, that must have been a really horrible thing, so glad that nothing worse happened to you guys.  These things strike horror in my heart. 

The limb and the bow fell just feet from me.  The electrical energy running down the trunk to the ground lit my hair up like a neon sign and made it stand on end so tight I thought it would come out. 
What, Brian, you got some hair on your head  :evil: 8-) :lol:? teasing and smiling.  Have a wonderful, most awesome day, health.  Cindi
Title: Re: Lightning Strike
Post by: Bee Happy on September 26, 2009, 11:54:09 pm
nice pics robo. I got to see a pine tree take a hit on the roadside once. and I gotta admit, it was the coolest stuff blowing up thing I ever saw.