Community Chat

[songbird]

Happened to me when I was small (in Italy)  There was a violent thunderstorm.  I remembered how the house shook.  Anyway we all (our family) looked out the window and we saw a bolt of lightning looking like ball of fire roll down the street and hit a tree on the corner.  Never forgot it. It cut the tree in half.  It stood there a long time before they removed it.  The light from the strike was blinding.

The most dangerous time for a storm is the very beginning (before it rains) and oddly enough....towards the ending.  That's when tornadoes usually appear.

[CatsyCline]

i saw live lightning bolts when i was stuck in traffic couple years ago. the air crackled and they came up from the ground on the shoulder of the highway. the flashes were this eerie electric blue/white  stripe.   it was wild - they were so bright they glowed. maybe 20 ft away.

[sugarbee]

I have had four experiences so far in my life.  Years ago, lightning came into a family room ceiling light, whirled around and went back out again. The light fixture was byond repair and was not on at the time. 

While looking out at a storm, lightning struck straight down into the ground in my back yard - looked just like lightning that is drawn in a cartoon.

While driving in my little VW lighnting hit the hood of the car and bounced off

Lightning hit a tree in my son's back yard, bounced off and hit the side of the house. Damaged the siding and then ran along the carpet inside the house blowing out all the appliances.  Thankfully, did not start a fire.

I enjoy watching storms but lightning is so very dangerous.

[Pink123]

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@Trailrun23 wrote:

We had a six year-old boy and his father struck by lightning a couple of weeks ago during a severe thunderstorm. The father was walking his two sons back from the school bus stop. The six year-old was holding his father's hand and the lighting bolt struck the father and traveled into the six year-old, killing them both. His other son, who is 8, was not hurt since he was walking ahead and not holding his dad's hand. 
lightning can happen with or without hearing thunder, and the " silent lightning" can be the most deadly since most don't know it is nearby. 

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I'm so sorry for your family @Trailrun23 . It's so hard  to believe such  a tragey.  God bless.

[YouGoGirl1]

I worked with a man that told his story about

what happened when lighting struck in his

upstairs bedroom window, as he was sleeping in his bed, it burnt the bed at the bottom, fried everything that was electric in the house. It was pretty scary. I also remember reading a story years ago in Time Magazine about a man that was

deaf and blind and was struck by lighting

and it brought back his sight and hearing.

[PA Mom-mom]

@Pink123  Quite an ordeal, but it looks like you are going to be able to recover. To answer your question, yes, when I was still in college and living part time at my parent's house. We were in the dining room, and lightning hit the plumbing in the living room wall. Suddenly a hole was blown in the wall, plaster flew everywhere and a fireball exploded out of the wall and rolled across the living room floor. It dissipated in a lot of sparks dancing all over the floor. That was it. We lost power; but, this was before all the newer electronics that could now be ruined. Kind of exciting.

[PA Mom-mom]

@SilleeMee  A friend of ours, who seems to know about these things, told us it's not what's above the ground, but what is below the ground that attracts lightning. He said it has to do with the mineral content of the rocks and how close they are to the surface. I have no idea if this is correct, but our family home was hit, and surrounding trees have been hit many times.

[Pink123]

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@songbird wrote:

Happened to me when I was small (in Italy)  There was a violent thunderstorm.  I remembered how the house shook.  Anyway we all (our family) looked out the window and we saw a bolt of lightning looking like ball of fire roll down the street and hit a tree on the corner.  Never forgot it. It cut the tree in half.  It stood there a long time before they removed it.  The light from the strike was blinding.

The most dangerous time for a storm is the very beginning (before it rains) and oddly enough....towards the ending.  That's when tornadoes usually 

@songbird  That's exactly when it happened, at the beginning of the rain maybe 2 minutesl, then boom.

At least for me it did.

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[Pink123]

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@sugarbee wrote:

I have had four experiences so far in my life.  Years ago, lightning came into a family room ceiling light, whirled around and went back out again. The light fixture was byond repair and was not on at the time. 

While looking out at a storm, lightning struck straight down into the ground in my back yard - looked just like lightning that is drawn in a cartoon.

While driving in my little VW lighnting hit the hood of the car and bounced off

Lightning hit a tree in my son's back yard, bounced off and hit the side of the house. Damaged the siding and then ran along the carpet inside the house blowing out all the appliances.  Thankfully, did not start a fire.

I enjoy watching storms but lightning is so very dangerous.

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@haddon9  hey, I enjoy it too when I'm home which I was right her typing. 

I love the rainy days, reading a book under the covers but I did  not expect this. Oh my goodness.  

However, once more, learning to be peaceful without any device took 2 days and sure enough when I was just used to it, it was back on maybe much to my chagrin.

[LizzieInSRQ]

45 years ago lightening struck my brother's rental while they were at work and daycare. Caused a fire, destroyed everything they had, even electrocuted the fish in the fish tank. What the smoke and fire didnt ruin, the water the firefighters used did. They lost everything, every single bit, but they had very little as they were in their early 20s. I was around 8 years old and they had to come to our house to live for a bit. It was a sad, tough time. Glad to be alive but devastated.

I am glad you are ok and safe!!!