Had a big thunderstorm pass over our neighborhood last night, packing quite a punch.  While many thunderboomers were quite loud, none were as loud or as explosive as one very memorable strike.  The explosive sound accompanied the bright flash simultaneously, so I knew it hit nearby.

 

Although it startled us, everything seemed fine inside the house.

 

After the storm blew over, I noticed the next door neighbors were outside checking their house with powerful flashlights.  I asked them if they thought their house got struck, and they said it DID hit their house, and they were checking for damage and/or fire!

 

Holy smokes!

 

Turns out they suffered a direct hit. Although nobody was injured, several TV's, computers, and other various electronics took one for the team.

 

The lightening struck no more than 30 yards from where we were sitting.  Close enough to trip a GFI circuit in our house.

 

No wonder it was so loud.

 

That's the closest I've ever been to a lightening strike.  I have no plans to be that close again.

...Although nobody was injured, several TV's, computers, and other various electronics took one for the team.

 

 

I own a Home Theater company & some folks ask if they really need a quality surge protector/line conditioner for their TV, receivers & other A/V products.  Your neighbors experience is an extreme example where such protection would have taken the hit and saved all of those electronics.

We have lots of lightning strikes here in Florida, we lose power all the time.  One early morning I'm fishing at the inlet, the road A1A is just above.  There is a transformer on a pole about 40 yards from where we were fishing, a lightning bolt hit it.  It was like the 4 of July and the Normandy invasion all at once. 

When I was growing up, we lived on a retired farm. We had rods up on the house and barn.

Being the tallest thing around, the barn got hit all the time.

Josh

You know you're close when the flash and the sound arrive at the same time.

 

In my case, it was an oak tree that got vaporized 50 yards in front of the golf cart I was riding in.  The other half of our foursome were half that distance  away and ended up being showered with chunks of tree bark.

Glad you and yours are ok....along with your neighbors.

The closest I've gotten was when I walked outside to see what my dad was doing and as soon as I got past the car I seen nothing but white and heard thunder. Scared me bad enough at the moment that I dropped to the ground and thought I had been hit. I'm guessing it probably hit in the field just a little ways away.

glad everybody was ok

Too close for comfort. Glad you and the

neighbors are unscathed. Been in such 

storms when vacationing as a kid in the 

Poconos. Frightening. But awesome at 

the same time...

You know you're close when the flash and the sound arrive at the same time.

 

In my case, it was an oak tree that got vaporized 50 yards in front of the golf cart I was riding in.  The other half of our foursome were half that distance  away and ended up being showered with chunks of tree bark.

Who takes a golf cart fishing??? JK!  You guys are so lucky!  If we get one crash-bang storm a year we consider ourselves fortunate!  Praying for rain in So Cal!

My 2007 trip to the Amazon was pretty hairy.  We were on the water one day when the weather turned.  All of a sudden, lightening is striking the water, literally all around us.  We made our way back to the lodge, and the entire time I'm thinking, "are we going to make it back without getting hit?"  We did....

Some buddies and I were fishing the other week and it was getting pretty stormy outside. Right as we were throwing our stuff in the back of my truck, a tree about 20 ft away from us got struck but luckily fell the other way. Another time was during a baseball game wand there was a tin roof covering the stands of the field we were playing on and it got struck. I despise lightning with a passion

Our computer got fried a couple of years ago from a nearby lightning strike.  Now when it storms out, everything gets unplugged from the receptacles.  I even unplug the data line leading into the computer.

That was too close for comfort.

Glad you did not have any damages.

Check your boat's battery charger to make sure it is OK.

I had a lightning strike in the woods behind my house and it took out my battery charger on my bass boat plus one of the two trolling batteries.

Hope you don't find any residual damage as the weeks progress.

We had lightning strike a basketball backboard pole which was 50 feet behind our house.  It then travelled underground and blew a 5 inch hole through my cinderblock basement wall. Scary stuff...