Topic: Lightning strike effects

[Mike]

A few days ago a house in the rural area here was struck by two separate CGs.  Now the first hit a tree just outside the house and sent shards of bark through the flyscreen door penetrating the inside door by about an inch.  Now, the second strike hit the house and obliterated the fuse box and all the power points inside the house - to the effect of smoking.  There was a photo of where the lightning had exited outside the house, on the patio area which was concrete! The divet left behind was at least 3 inches deep by 4 inches across.  I questioned the photographer as to where she obtained the information from re the exit point of the strike.  She said that the divet in the concrete was caused by the lightning's current exiting through the rio in the concrete and blasting out.

There was no scorching or branching from the exit point, which led me to presume that it could be fake....

Now, I've never seen this before and was wondering if any other forum members have seen this type of exit point and is it possible?

I've seen divets from my mates house where a CG struck not 5 metres from where we were standing as it exited the telephone cable underground - but this was in soft earth not concrete, but it was around the same dimensions....

I would most appreciate if anyone has had similar observations with very close CG strikes.  What observations were made as to the after effects and what they looked like.  A divet that size through at least 3 inch concrete just has me puzzled.

Mike.

[Mike]

Hi John, Well yes.  Even though the concrete has rio through it, i've never heard of an exit point imploding like that - if that's where the lightning struck - perhaps that's the answer?  The point of contact and not exit as they assumed?

I might have a look at the photos again and find out some more info from the photographer who took the shots and spoke to the home owners.  Will keep you posted!

[Mike]

Re lightning strike effects - have not been able to get any more info on that event, so we can call that part of it completed!

[Jeff Brislane]

I would not doubt such damage to concrete from a lightning strike but i would have to see some pics to be sure. If the current passed through the reinforcing of the concrete and if it was wet you could get something like that happening. In a lot of concrete slabs the rio tends to end up at the bottom so it could have been close enough to the ground to pick up the current. People have been felled by lightning travelling many meters through wet earth.

I also saw a lightning damaged tree two weeks ago. It exploded sending pieces flying everywhere. One piece smashed a timber gate next to a house ten meters away and another piece about a foot long ended up on the roof of a house 50 meters away!

Jeff.

[Mike]

Hey Jeff, well this topic is gaining some importance i think.  My wife was at a party last night (10th) and she was talking to a friend who mentioned a group of three who were affected by a close strike.  All three were sitting on metal chairs on the grass and two of them were flung off them without injury, but the third who managed to stay in their chair had burns to her soles of her feet !  The other two had no apparent burns, but the third did - so there is the question again - the current obviously ran underground, found the path of least resistance and whamo, unlucky number three gets the scars!

Sorry I was unable to post the pics re the concrete - the local paper here won't allow editorial to download the photos and send them via email - it's a sackable offence as the 'company' then owns the photos and not the employee photographer who took them - that's the law.



Mike