Indoor lightning? WTH?

**Skew ChiDAMN!!** · 14th December 2018, 09:24 AM

Yesterday we had a weather front move in, bringing gale-force gusts of wind, heavy rain (heavy enough that it hurt!) and an intense electrical storm.

About 5 minutes in there was an intense flash, instantaneous earth-shattering !KABOOM! and we were without power.

My first thought was one of our satellite dishes had copped a direct hit... but I had no intentions of braving the rain (once was painful enough) again to have a look-see.

15 mins later it had blown over and the sun was shining as though there hadn't been a cloud in the sky. Another 20 minutes later, the power was restored. I'm thankful for our power-line guys... as we're one of only two properties off a spur line that runs several km through timber. Awesome job, lads!

By itself, that was enough for me, but not enough to prompt me to write about it. Why I am posting is that around an hour later it happened all over again!

Only... instead of the power going out, instead we had small, intense actinic arcs occurring seemingly in mid-air in the middle of the lounge and kitchen! No thunder... well... not what we would typically call thunder, but there were very definitely the loud crackling SNAPs of high-wattage discharge.

The first occurred in the kitchen, near the toaster/kettle and I'll swear the arc was about 2' long (really hard to tell, considering 'twas so fleeting) and in mid-air... but I thought I was seeing things. Instead, I told myself, the wind had probably lifted a sheet of corro, blowing water inside and down an internal wall, where it was shorting the power-point.

I called the missus to warn her and just as she walked into the kitchen another arc occurred in the middle of the kitchen. Between us. At a guess I'd say 6" long, starting in mid-air and ending in mid-air.

About this time I thought "Oh Bother!" (Well... not quite, but why upset the censors?

)

Then one in the living room... visible through an arch, And another couple... all the while I'm thinking "I shouldn't be standing here, but where do I go?" The Mrs had wisely retreated to the other end of the house. Five mins later the brief storm ended and all was, seemingly, well.

I've checked the roof and it is fine. All the house electricals are still working, no fuses were blown and even the electronics such as the telecomms equipment (modem, cell-phone amp, etc) which are hardwired and cannot be turned off are working satisfactorily.

No damage, except to my understanding of "How Things Work" (And maybe a little to my undies.

)

WTH? Does anyone have any explanation for this that adheres to the rules of Physics as we know them? I could understand if the roof was generating static and it was discharging through pipes, etc. to the ground. I'd still be astonished, but I could understand it .

Seemingly random mid-air arcs though?

**BobL** · 14th December 2018, 10:20 AM

It's rare but indoor lightning does happen. Look up "indoor lightning" - usually the charge enters via various conductors back into the house but it sounds like your case was the following even rarer type

The electrical potential (Volts) between low lying clouds and ground night not be enough to trigger a full blown atmospheric lightning flash in the air, but if a building is in between the clouds and the ground, then dust and other chemicals in the air inside the building may be conductive enough to enable the electric field inside parts of the building to generate discharges. Did you perchance feel any strange sensation on your skin? I'm surprised it dod not affect any electricals - probably shows all your earths are working well.

There are related phenomena such as St Elmos Fire and the even rarer Ball Lightning that you might like to look up.

I experienced lightning inside a lab at work when an atmospheric flash hit the middle of a car park immediately outside the lab and less than a second later there was a huge flash across one of the very expensive analytical instruments. It was like a horizontal lightning flash from one side of the lab to the other. We eventually found out the current from the external flash must have got into the 25 x 6 mm copper lab earth strap a couple of metres under the car park and travelled back into the lab that way.

**poundy** · 14th December 2018, 12:36 PM

@skew where abouts are you located? My fam used to live in Oberon so I know the area.

Yeah my first thought was ball lightning / St Elmos as well. I know the cloud can come in quite low over some parts of that area if you're on some of the more prominent areas, but there's also a lot of lower land too where the cloud levels are nowhere near as likely to bring this kind of issue...

**rustynail** · 14th December 2018, 01:09 PM

Had a similar thing happen in a shearing shed, about 40 years ago. There was a major ground strike and instant boom. Half an hour later there were little flashes going off all over the place inside the shed. We were out the door like lightning (if you'll pardon the pun.) Headed straight for town and all bought lottery tickets. Asked an old Black Fella if he'd ever heard of such a thing and his response was, "How you think I get this colour?"

**Skew ChiDAMN!!** · 14th December 2018, 03:36 PM

Originally Posted by poundy

@skew where abouts are you located? My fam used to live in Oberon so I know the area.

Yeah my first thought was ball lightning / St Elmos as well. I know the cloud can come in quite low over some parts of that area if you're on some of the more prominent areas, but there's also a lot of lower land too where the cloud levels are nowhere near as likely to bring this kind of issue...

We're between Oberon and O'Connell, out near Lowes Mount... so, yeah, the highlands. On the lee side of a ridge so we avoid the worst of the winds. It can be quite impressive watching the clouds go hoofing by over-head, knowing they're only a hundred foot or two up, yet still be in a calm...

Now I'm wondering if the earlier, near-by strike had something to do with it, even if 'twas something like an hour previous.

**cava** · 14th December 2018, 05:35 PM

Had a 30cm bolt of lightning come out of my laptop 2013/14 that destroyed it via the phone line. Phone line OK, power circuits also untouched, but apparently a lot of houses affected 15klm away.

**Uncle Al** · 14th December 2018, 09:46 PM

Poltergeist?

Alan...

**ian** · 15th December 2018, 09:12 AM

Originally Posted by BobL

It's rare but indoor lightning does happen. Look up "indoor lightning" - usually the charge enters via various conductors back into the house but it sounds like your case was the following even rarer type

The electrical potential (Volts) between low lying clouds and ground night not be enough to trigger a full blown atmospheric lightning flash in the air, but if a building is in between the clouds and the ground, then dust and other chemicals in the air inside the building may be conductive enough to enable the electric field inside parts of the building to generate discharges. Did you perchance feel any strange sensation on your skin? I'm surprised it dod not affect any electricals - probably shows all your earths are working well.

There are related phenomena such as St Elmos Fire and the even rarer Ball Lightning that you might like to look up.

my though as well

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