September 25, 2006
Early Sunday morning a cold front passed through our area. I was asleep and was awakened to the sounds of an enormous lightning storm. Blinding flashes of light followed by the loud crash of thunder, as the air, momentarily shoved out of the way by the electrical fluid, collapsed back into the void left created by the static discharge. There were at least three lightning bolts I recall that hit so nearby that the light and sound were nearly simultaneous. Once I'm in bed, not much will get me out, even the alarm clock. Kathy, on the other hand, gets up for a nothing. As I lay in bed, I saw her poking her head out the window which looks out at the street. I said nothing, but just continued to lay there hoping that the storm would soon pass so I could get back to sleep. I guess I don't get worried about thunderstorms when I'm inside the house. I suppose that if lightning did strike, it would probably find an easier path to ground than through me. After a few minutes, a final bolt struck nearby and power went out. "Well," I said, "I guess it will be a few days before we get power back." Kathy made some remarks, perhaps about pessimism, but I was too sleepy to remember. I did lay awake for a while, however, and noticed the temperature in the house begin to rise as the lack of air conditioning and ceiling fan action began to make itself felt. Apparently the cold airmass had not arrived yet, because I found myself sweating underneath the bedsheet. After an hour or so, the power returned, and I fell back asleep.
I didn't think much of the storm the next day except recalling the loud and terrible fury of an atmospheric electrical discharge that occurs within a few hundred feet. I glanced at the flagpole on the pier from the house, remembering the windstorm that toppled it a few months back. Nothing was apparently wrong, so I returned to whatever I was doing.
Sunday was cool and refreshing. A nice change from the normal swelter of August and early September. K. suggested we go watch the sunset from the pier as it was an extraordinarily pretty one. As we approached the end, we saw that one of the lightning bolts had apparently struck the pier. Although the flag mast was unaltered by the experience, the discharge seemed to have travelled through the upper decking at the base of the mast, blasting out a chunk of the wooden 2X6.
The charge entered the nearby piling, probably via the steel bolts securing the upper deck. The lightning blew out large splinters from the side of the piling
and continued down toward the water, passing though an old 4x4 timber I had bolted on the base of the piling, shattering it in the process.
We found several large splinters lying on the deck nearby and some were even lodged in the fabric of the rolled up sunshade a few feet away.
One thing that puzzled me for a momnet was the lack of scorching. No burn marks. But then I realized that with the rain it had been wet. Of, course, it wouldn't be likely to burn under those circumstances.
The damage looks worse in the photos than it really is, and the upper deck still seems sound enough to use. I will probably attempt to glue some of the partially attached splinters back into place and try to find some means of replacing some of the lost wood. An investment in a fairly large gage wire to run from the base of the mast to a point near the water would probably also be a good idea, in case another strike occurs.
Posted by Bob at September 25, 2006 08:20 AM