We had a massive, city-shaking lightning bolt strike somewhere within a few hundred yards of our house at 3 AM this morning. I fully expected to smell smoke after that one.
The storm rolled up quietly in the night and as I dozed I figured it was a typical summer storm, where there’d be a few low-amp bolts and that would be it. There wasn’t even much rain falling. Instead, I suddenly saw a series of connected flashes as the feeders probed the earth. Then the flashes merged into one hugely bright flash, followed by immediate thunder that sent my already-skittish dog running for cover.
The kids and I spent 15 minutes hunting for the lightning’s unwitting conductor this morning but we haven’t found it yet. Something must have gotten cooked by that bolt! Thank goodness I disconnected that yet-ungrounded satellite dish I was playing around with yesterday!