lightning strike on my barn!

[Cyrus Cassidy #45437]

We had a massive hail and lightning storm last night at the Cassidy ranch. My HF ham radio antenna is on a tilt base so I can lay it on the ground without disconnecting anything, so it survived with no problems. However, lightning struck the electric fence around the pasture, followed the power cable into the barn, and blew up the control module. The cover blew off and the unit is toast. It also fried the circuit it's connected to. 

 

I'm really glad the barn didn't burn down!

Edited April 28 by Cyrus Cassidy #45437

[Blackwater 53393]

NASTY!! It was rough here in middle Tennessee last night late and early this morning. Knocked down an old apple tree and laid it across one driveway.  Hatfield is clearing it now. We had hail and lightning but no strikes here and no evidence of any hail damage.

 

I’m sure enough glad that I specified the high wind build on my shop. It’s rated to 160mph.

 

We’re looking at a more violent storm system passing through here this evening around rush hour. We’ll just batten down the hatches and hope for the best ‘case there ain’t much else ya’ can do.

 

It sure does upset Caly dog when these storms hit. She was big league upset this morning!

[John Kloehr]

20 minutes ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

NASTY!! It was rough here in middle Tennessee last night late and early this morning...

A lot of flash-bang in east Tennessee around 5 this morning. It was all close to me. Have not found any problems so far, have not checked all electronics yet and have not been out to the barn.

[Blackwater 53393]

JK!! What part of East Tennessee are you located in??

 

I have a number of friends over east of here.

 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

In all my years I've never had a lightning strike.  Had a few  close calls a time or six or so, but the worst I've been involved was a transformer blown up two blocks away five years ago.  Power was out for under an hour.   During  "monsoon season" they are  ready at a moments notice.

 

Most spectacular caused a 25 foot wide, foot deep crater in a parking lot about a block and a half east of my place, but I didn't  even know it until the next  morning.  Flying  gravel broke a couple of store windows and did some damage to car paint and glass.

Edited April 29 by Forty Rod SASS 3935

[DeaconKC]

Glad you are all safe and that there was no worse damage done.

Heavy storms here last night and more predicted for today.

[John Kloehr]

48 minutes ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

JK!! What part of East Tennessee are you located in??

 

I have a number of friends over east of here.

 

Between Knoxville and the park. ORSA is a good hour of driving with no traffic.

[Cyrus Cassidy #45437]

1 hour ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

In all my years I've never had a lightning strike.  Had a few  close calls a time or six or so, but the worst I've been involved was a transformer blown up two blocks away five years ago.  Power was out for under an hour.   During  "monsoon season" they are  ready at a moments notice.

 

Most spectacular caused a 25 foot wide, foot deep crater in a parking lot about a block and a half west of my place, but I didn't  even know it until the next  morning.  Flying  gravel broke a couple of store windows and did some damage to car paint and glass.

 

Our house is at 7400 feet of elevation and we've lived there since 2011. In that time we've had two lightning strikes. The first one fried my air conditioner and the well pump!

[Blackwater 53393]

1 hour ago, John Kloehr said:

Between Knoxville and the park. ORSA is a good hour of driving with no traffic.

Just a quick jaunt off topic, JK!!

 

Break out and ride up to Manchester, KY on the July 16 thru 18 weekend and hang out with us at The Black Gold Shootout! It’s a great party and there’s some good shootin’ mixed in with the revelry!!  
 

You ain’t too far! It just off I75, east of London, KY!

 

A lot of the ORSA folks will be there!!

[Blackwater 53393]

Lightning is pretty random as to what it might strike.

 

When I was in high school I had a big 16hand tall appaloosa gelding that stayed at my uncle’s place. 
 

I took my girlfriend out there to go for a ride and he was laying under a tree where the lightning struck and jumped to him. 
 

It split the tree right down to the point where it made the jump and split all four of his legs from there to the ground!

 

I never bought another horse. Ya’ can’t fix ‘em like you can a car or a motorcycle…

[Yul Lose]

Back in 1984 or so I sold a new radio system, base stations, repeater, remotes, etc… to a police department in southern Arizona. A new chief had been hired from somewhere up north, I forget where and he really disliked the old system that they had to use and really pushed the city council for a new system. It went out to bid and my company got the deal. I met with the chief and council and really encouraged them to invest in some quality lightning protection since the repeater would be installed at the base of a water tower with the 20’ antenna  mounted on the top. They didn’t want to spend the money and I remember the new chief making a statement “well, it never rains in Arizona” and they all laughed. Shortly after the system was installed the dreaded Arizona monsoons started and the repeater antenna took a direct hit, one of the police officers saw it happen. 
 

I sent a couple of techs out to check out the damage and they both recommended the repeater, antenna and feed line be replaced. The antenna and feed line was a no brainer but the city wanted us to repair the repeater and with the labor, travel and parts it ended up costing about twice what a new repeater would have cost. Whenever I sold a system like that again the lightning protection was an easy sell after showing the pictures of the lightning damaged equipment.
 

 

[Eyesa Horg]

4 hours ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

NASTY!! It was rough here in middle Tennessee last night late and early this morning. Knocked down an old apple tree and laid it across one driveway.  Hatfield is clearing it now. We had hail and lightning but no strikes here and no evidence of any hail damage.

 

I’m sure enough glad that I specified the high wind build on my shop. It’s rated to 160mph.

 

We’re looking at a more violent storm system passing through here this evening around rush hour. We’ll just batten down the hatches and hope for the best ‘case there ain’t much else ya’ can do.

 

It sure does upset Caly dog when these storms hit. She was big league upset this morning!

👍 We'll be thinking of ya Pard. Stay safe and hug that doggie!

[Calamity Kris]

Luckily, there were no injuries or fires.  Best of luck with the repairs.

[Cypress Sun]

Boy, if it wasn't for bad luck....

 

Actually, you got fairly lucky that that's all the damage that the lightning caused. It did come at a bad time with the vet bills and all. Keep your head up, I hope your luck gets better.

[Texas Lizard]

A guy by the name of Ben had the same idea....Just an earlier model of such....

 

Texas Lizard

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

In 1961 we were visiting relatives in Macedonia, Iowa and watching a thunderstorm.  Saw a lightning bolt strike a barn and travel across the peak of the roof and skip over to hit a second barn about fifty feet away and travelled to the end of that roof.  It was very spectacular.  Neither building was very seriously damaged, but Uncle Bill had the roofs "re-caulked" just in case of leakage.

Edited April 29 by Forty Rod SASS 3935

[watab kid]

i hate when that happens , seems like you always loose the things you like most - when it hit a tree in my yard a number of years ago i lost my bose raio and sisio TV 

[Blackwater 53393]

The storms last night were not as severe here.  We missed the worst of it.

[Pat Riot]

I am really glad it wasn’t worse @Cyrus Cassidy #45437

 

Do you have lightning rods on your structures? They do help. 
 

https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/lightning7.htm

[Cyrus Cassidy #45437]

2 minutes ago, Pat Riot said:

I am really glad it wasn’t worse @Cyrus Cassidy #45437

 

Do you have lightning rods on your structures? They do help. 
 

https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/lightning7.htm

 

Yes, absolutely. My ham radio antennas also have grounding rods, but my buildings, do, too. 

[Utah Bob #35998]

Wow that was close!
When I lived in the lightning capitol of the world , a bolt hit the neighbor’s ficus tree, ran under my driveway, hit the roots of my tree, latched on the the water lines and exited the tile wall in my shower like a 30mm shell. 😳

[Smokin Gator SASS #29736]

Many years ago we had lightning and thunder right on top of us as severe as we've ever had it. We had virtually no landscaping at the time and sometimes our donkey would get the gate open and come in the backyard. With the lightning and thunder he wanted out of the back yard now! But couldn't get through the gate I went out to let him out and with my wife watching the backyard lit up like daylight as I neared Pecos. Got him out and he headed for his house. 

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

I was running a wire antenna, 8 ft off the sod, horizontal run.

Jove's Bolt ignored 35 and 50 ft high, rain-wet trees, hit my wire antenna.
Blew an Icom AH-4 tuner off the floor joist where I had it bolted, incinerated an Icom 7200, the SignaLink, every telephone in the house, one LED bulb over the sink, and brought me out of bed like I'd been Clap Boarded across the Backside, as the AH-4 tuner was directly under the bed on that floor joist, and sounded like someone fired off a deer slug in the basement!
Blew right through every bit of my lightning protection!
Nowadays I physically disconnect from the outside wire when not in use ... plus new updated bonded lightning protection!
When I looked at your control box with the front blown off, I could SMELL it!

[Stump Water]

On 4/28/2026 at 4:22 PM, Blackwater 53393 said:

he was laying under a tree where the lightning struck and jumped to him

 

I've lost track of the friends/relatives that have lost livestock to lightening.  I don't recall the exact count, but the worst was 15-20 head of cattle.

[Gateway Kid SASS# 70038 Life]

The property we own now has a huge cottonwood tree that has about a 20 foot tall foot wide split and burn marks almost all the way around. A couple months before we bought it the previous owner lost two cows and a big steer that were under it in a lightning storm when a bolt hit it, traveling down the trunk through the roots. Somehow the tree survived though it is most likely hollowed out and needing removal. 
Pretty powerful stuff!

Regards

    

Gateway Kid

[Utah Bob #35998]

I had many close calls when I was a park ranger. One when I was next to a 300 foot radio tower while I was carrying a can of gasoline! Got my attention.