<story><title>Extraordinary ‘megaflash’ lightning strikes cover several hundred kilometres</title><url>https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/06/1067182</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mikeInAlaska</author><text>The lot next to where I live has a cell tower which gets hit now and then. It is ... way beyond.. loud. The last time it happened all my pets were in front of me within 10 seconds after, as if saying &amp;quot;Pardon sir, we are not programmed for this event! Please advise!&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;The induced EMF in my long cables like cat-5 throughout the house and my outdoor observatory also takes out motherboards, DSL interfaces and ethernet adapters each time. These days when I hear thunder I start unplugging devices.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jameshart</author><text>Lightning seems particularly tough on high frequency signal processing hardware. A lightning strike on an invisible dog fence the previous owners had left in place around our house fried, along with a couple of ethernet ports, every HDMI connector that was plugged in in one particular room at the time. Rest of the devices continued to function perfectly, but those HDMI input&amp;#x2F;outputs were cooked. Similar HDMI devices in another room were totally unaffected. My working theory is that the devices in the affected room were plugged in to multiple power sockets, giving a longer antenna loop through the sensitive components, while in the unaffected room all the devices were running off the same power strip. Would explain why ethernet - connecting devices in different rooms - also seems vulnerable.&lt;p&gt;Not much more evidence to go on, so it&amp;#x27;s largely superstition, but as a result I do generally try to keep my whole AV setup - game console, TV, AV receiver, etc. - plugged into a single power strip now.&lt;p&gt;I also now have a cat who is &lt;i&gt;exceptionally&lt;/i&gt; nervous whenever he hears thunder. My wife and son were home at the time and... yes, the sound of a lightning strike at point blank is not just &lt;i&gt;loud&lt;/i&gt;, it&amp;#x27;s.. like a crack in the world.</text></comment>
<story><title>Extraordinary ‘megaflash’ lightning strikes cover several hundred kilometres</title><url>https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/06/1067182</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mikeInAlaska</author><text>The lot next to where I live has a cell tower which gets hit now and then. It is ... way beyond.. loud. The last time it happened all my pets were in front of me within 10 seconds after, as if saying &amp;quot;Pardon sir, we are not programmed for this event! Please advise!&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;The induced EMF in my long cables like cat-5 throughout the house and my outdoor observatory also takes out motherboards, DSL interfaces and ethernet adapters each time. These days when I hear thunder I start unplugging devices.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nkrisc</author><text>I was once walking along a soccer field in Costa Rica during the daily afternoon shower in the rainy season. Suddenly the entire sky beyond the treeline turned completely white. It was like I was looking at a black and white silhouette of the treeline. At the same moment I heard the loudest sound I&amp;#x27;ve ever heard. It was like an explosion; I could feel the ground tremble. I have no idea how close the strike was, only that the sound and lightning were simultaneous from my perspective. It honestly could have been just on the other side of the trees across the field, or maybe half a kilometer away, I couldn&amp;#x27;t tell you. All I can say for sure is I ran like hell to the nearest house.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not regularly around explosions and such so I&amp;#x27;ve never experienced anything like that before or since.</text></comment>