[davesimondotcom]

I've been looking on the net for a while this morning trying to find information, but I haven't found any. Here's the story:

Last night, around 8 PM, there was a storm approaching our house. We have a retractable awning on the back patio that we appropriated from my father's RV. Works great for keeping the western side of our house cooler in summer.

Anyway, the only problem with the awning is that when the wind kicks up, it starts flapping and gets rather noisy, unless all of the legs are tightened. The whole thing forms a triangle, the top connecting above the sliding glass door, with the "legs" attached to the house below. So the whole thing basically hangs off the house.

So last night, the storm was causing the awning to flap, making lots of noise, and I got fed up and decided to go tighten the supports. I tightened the right side, went over to the left and touched the main support and got quite a shock (literally.) At the same time, the sky lit up and there was lightning to the north of my house. The thunder was immediate, so the strike was close.

The awning isn't connected to anything but the house, i.e. electricity of any kind. So I'm wondering if the lightning nearby had some secondary branches or caused enough static in the air that it shocked me.

To give you an idea of the shock I felt, it was much more powerful than you would feel by walking across a room and touching a doorknob. I would say it was about 10 times more powerful than when I've tested a dog shock collar on my hand to see if it was working.

It definitely scared me! I don't know if it's just a mental thing, but my right side was sore most of the evening. (It was my right hand that got the shock.)

Freak thing, definitely. In my defense, I'm usually very careful about lightning storms when I'm golfing, fishing or whatever. I didn't see any lightning or hear thunder before that strike.

So, does anyone know if there is such a thing as "minor" lightning? Some sort of secondary branch? Static in the air before/during a nearby strike? I can't explain any other reason that I would get a shock from touching that support. I was standing on concrete wearing flip-flops just like I've done a hundred times this summer.

[zizban]

Ions can get charged when there is lightning around, especially if it's real close or real bad. I remember during a bad electrical storm in Florida, my battery operated light, which was off, flickered on and off. Weird. So yes, what are you are describing sounds the same.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by davesimondotcom

So, does anyone know if there is such a thing as "minor" lightning?.

Sure. Stick your tongue in the wall socket and you'll see

-t

[RAILhead]

You just got popped with a dose of potent static electricity -- same as you described as far as walking over carpet, just stronger.

Remember: lightning doesn't hit the ground -- it connects mid-air as particles from Earth and the clouds arc to one another. Due to the lightning in your area, the metal outside was already getting all hot and bothered with the wind causing friction, building up the static electricity. You simply helped the discharge.

That said, getting popped by static electricity can still hurt like a bleedin' motherscratcher, and your soreness is to be expected.

I remember one time I was working on one of my solid state guitar amp head and I didn't unplug it. I was sitting on the floor, "Indian style," and I got hit by the 220 so hard it literally made me jump up and strike the side of my bed. For the next day or two, my right arm felt like I'd been swinging and axe 48 hours straight.

Electricity is not something to screw with, that's for sure -- be it "man made" or in the raw.

Maury

[el chupacabra]

anywhere around the strike site electricity is moving about...or whatever electricity does. You dont have to be directly hit by lighting to get killed by it... In other words you were within the radius of the strike site and kind of got struck by lightning. its like throwing an electical cord in a bathtub. If you touch the water at the other end of the tub you still get electricuted.

[Millennium]

The summer before I started high school, I was sent on a whitewater rafting trip with some of my schoolmates-to-be. At one point we were walking through a parking lot and it suddenly started to rain, and lightning struck a streetlight very close to where I was standing. I got a shock very similar to the one you're describing here.

I don't remember it really hurting very much, per se; no more than a regular static shock. It did, however, make me jump several feet. It also scared the crap out of my classmates, who thought I'd been struck.

[davesimondotcom]

Millennium -

Perhaps you and I are just have electric personalities.

I get a charge out of saying something like that.

Power to the people!

Man, all these cheesy puns are such a waste of energy.

I'm shocked by my cheesiness.

[iLikebeer]

If it's as close as you say, you probably "sort of" got struck by lightning. About 30 meters above the ground, the stepped leader connects with a positive charge moving up from the tallest object, forming a channel. Then electrons shoot to the ground through the channel, up to 30 or 40 strokes. The current can be up to 100,000 amps, so there's some serious electricity moving around. Most likely part of it went through your house or awning, and you got hit. You're lucky, people have been killed by what you just described.

Often people set up those little covered shelters out for a picnic or camping and go under them when it starts raining. Lightning connects with a tree, then skips over to the nice metal supports of the shelter. Good way to get serious burns or stop your heart.

I'd just tell people I was struck by lightning if that happened to me, it's close enough to the truth and makes for a good story or conversation starter.

Other lightning facts: after the lightning flash, every 5 seconds until you hear the thunder is 1 mile away.
Tires don't protect you from being struck by lightning, the metal cage of the car makes it go around the outside to the ground. That means you are NOT safe riding a bike just because it has rubber tires.