We had a thunderstorm here Thursday (18th). With not much of a warning at all, a huge pop of thunder went off right at my house. I've never heard one that loud. Sound like a cannon right over my head. I knew something was wrong right away. I had no water. Looked out the window and see a flood of water coming up at the street in front of the house next to mine. Lightning had hit the main water line from the city. Another neighbor of mine said he actually seen it hit and about 10ft. of water shot up in the air. It proceeded to flood my neighbors yard and fortunately run between our houses and down the road then down another street. We called the water company and police. To make a long story short, they worked all night til the next morning repairing it. I know, because it was about 40 to 50 ft. from my bedroom window, and I didn't get much sleep that night. Lightning had hit the same neighbors tree a couple of years ago. Seems like I read something like this in a post several years ago. Any theories why it would hit the water line? The guys had to dig down about 5 to 6 feet in the dirt, and cut asphalt about 4ft. square to fix the line. Seems like I heard something about loose bonding around water lines when something like this happens. Thanks for the replies. Pretty powerful lightning that would go down 5 or 6 feet in the ground:0

The same thing happened to Tom Cruise.

It was caught on film, but you have to slow it down to see the aliens.

I'd say with the storm being directly overhead, it was mere coincidence that a direct cloud-ground strike hit the ground where the water main was.
Just sheer bad luck, I suppose.

We had lightning come in an open Kitchen window some years back. It went through the screen, without leaving a mark, and hit a pot of Boiling Water on the stove.

It burned a hole in the bottom of the pot, and I had to replace that heating coil.

Glad no one was in the room when it happened...


Bill

I was called out to a house several years ago. It seemed that lightning hit the house. After checking around for an hour or so,the only thing the lightning hit was an old shotgun laying in a closet.

Go figure!

SparkyNC:



I would imagine that at least 50% of Discharges will involve high levels of Current flowing via Underground City Water Lines.

The Water Lines assist with the transfer of large amounts of Majority Charge Carriers - either prior to &/or during
the "Connection" of Stroke Leader(s), and the complete Discharge event.

Prior to the "Big Event" (where the Stroke Leaders connect and initiate an Arc - the predecessor to the large
discharge path Plasma), there will be Hundreds of Non-Visible "Leaders" rising up from the Ground level (typically Trees and tall Buildings, but also from the actual Ground its self).
At the same time, there will be Hundreds of Leaders extending outward from the Cloud Mass above.

As the Charge in the Cloud Mass increases (gains more Negative Charges), an equally increasing Charge is impressed on the Ground directly below the Cloud Mass.
The large Negative Charge State of the Cloud Mass "Pushes" Negative Charges in the Ground below it "away", resulting in the Ground in that area becoming high in Positive Charges.
This continues until the Breakdown of the Air is reached (apx. 10KV per Meter), and Two (or more) Stroke Leaders connect between the Cloud and the Ground.

Discharge occurs until both the Cloud Mass above, and the underlying Ground Area have once again reached a near equal Potential.
Typically, this is when the Cloud has discharged all the "Excessive Negative Charges" which were recently accumulated.

The Underground Water Lines help transfer Charges very efficiently, acting as a highly conductive path to transfer Positive and Negative Charges, to & from the discharge event location.

-- Scott