This is getting too close!

[Feralpeg]

Another house in my area is a complete loss due to fire from a lightening strike that occurred late this afternoon. This is the second house in this area to be destroyed by lightening in the last couple of months. This is a little to close for comfort. I may need to look into lightening rods!

I know that they send the charge into the ground rather than into the house, but do the actually attract the lightening? I know that probably sounds stupid, but I know nothing about them.

 

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

I grew up in the midwest, and most of the older houses had them. Always had storms and heat lightning, don't remember any burning from a strike.

unfortuniately we also had tornados!

saw quite a number of home get hit by them!

try here:

http://www.lightningrodparts.com/?gclid=COWc05qeiZwCFRMUagodMVIpXw

( there are many more sites!)

they must work, when we took the backstage tour at WDW, they pointed the multitude of rods on the buildings there!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

In our old neighborhood my dd's friend parents installed a lightening rod because for some reason their house was a target.

It fried all of their electronics. Didn't set the house on fire though.

 

[P.I. Squirrel]

I know that they send the charge into the ground rather than into the house, but do the actually attract the lightening? I know that probably sounds stupid, but I know nothing about them.

Funny you should ask that. I was reading a weather book I got from the library this week. The author felt that sharp tipped lightning rods had exactly the opposite effect. He said that they help to dissipate positive ions from the ground, before they become the 'leader' that reaches up to begin the process of flashing.

In other words, sharp tipped lightning rods help prevent lightning from striking your house. It was the blunt tipped rods that attracted the lightning. Go figure.

 

[Feralpeg]

Funny you should ask that. I was reading a weather book I got from the library this week. The author felt that sharp tipped lightning rods had exactly the opposite effect. He said that they help to dissipate positive ions from the ground, before they become the 'leader' that reaches up to begin the process of flashing.

In other words, sharp tipped lightning rods help prevent lightning from striking your house. It was the blunt tipped rods that attracted the lightning. Go figure.

Very interesting. We only tend to hear a lot about the houses hit here that are a total loss or very badly damaged. In most cases like this, the people are not home, so the fire gets a chance to really spread before anyone notices. In this latest case, the people were out of the country. They lost their 6000 ft home and three cars. Many homes here get hit, but most of the time they get them under control quickly. I just don't want mine to get hit! Just this past week, my sister lost her PC to lightening.

Oddly, in most parts of the country, an average thunderstorm sparks 200 to 300 cloud to ground lightening strikes. In this area, it is not unusual for a average storm to spark 2600 or more cloud to ground strikes. It kind of ups the odds a bit of your house getting hit. One of the local weather reporters was talking about this just the other day.

Thanks for the information. I'll do some more research before I make my decision on the lightening rods.