It's go figure with lightning

[bj]

     Nice little thunderstorm early this morning.  Good rain (thanks) lots of lightning.  Happened to looking out the window at the shop,
and saw the strike, with fairly large reddish ball at the shop roof.  Lights flickered, that's all.  Then I realized that where the red ball was,
there used to be my anemometer, and rain gauge.
    Later, found many pieces, kind of like exploded, lights in the office, (highest point in the shop) fried, garage door opener, (same circuit)
fried.   Office "puter (different circuit) O.K. as this post is evidence to.
    Patterns on the roof are interesting, black feathery like radiating out from where the mast used to be. 
    All things considered, I feel lucky not to have had a fire, or more damage.
    Next step?  Repairs, and ground the entire roof.
   Oddest thing of all though, is that the anemometer etc is wired to the transmitter, and the wires were very burnt at the mast, but the transmitter
is still transmitting temperature and barometric pressure. (sensors in the transmitter)

  Like I said, go figure

[SparWeb]

The same storm shook us up, too.  Couple of lighning flashes with no delay before the thunder.
The worst of the downpour passed just a few km from our house.  Nearby farmers have significant damage. 

Sounds like your shop has a metal roof?  That might be what saved it.

Considering the kilo-Amps involved, lightning can do fantastic amounts of damage. 
Wires can be heated beyond melting, to vaporization, even.

[bj]

Correct Spar, metal roof, and I think you are quite right about the roof saving things.
A couple of interesting things came up on the repairs.  It appears that the lightning path was mainly through my
furnace.  The roof itself is not grounded, but everything inside is.  The furnace chimney goes through the roof so,
natural path.  Lots of evidence  at the furnace, but all is OK, I think because I had the Nat Gas grounded to the old
windmill ground rod.  (done out of pure laziness)
I have a bunch of old welding cable that has cracks in the insulation, so I think it will live on as roof grounding cable.
Basically,  I think I need to stick my head between my legs and kiss my very lucky butt.

[bj]

    So, the final tally on this (I Hope,) is seven cfl's, one amp for the sound system, one garage door opener, 31 feet of 2/14, and some damage to the computer.
It still functions, (crashes sporadically) but new CPU/ motherboard will arrive Tuesday.  Biggest loss, my weather station.
    All told, not too bad at all.
    Upper roof  now has 40 feet of 1/0 along the ridge cap, 1/0 down to the lower roof, 1/0 down to a ground rod driven in 18 feet.
    Everything repaired (except the 'puter).
    I used to like sitting on the back porch, and watch a good lightning storm.  Now, a little nervous.  But, I'll get over it, and I hear thunder as I type this.

[DanG]

Now go make a better ground elsewhere if you have the property - nice attractive ground, low impedance conductor and tall spark magnet that will draw the static leaders away from habitations?

[bj]

   Yes Dan, that is the plan.  I have the room, and a 60 foot tower with a turbine on top is part of it.  Got the pipe, etc,  now where did I lose
that time?  This summer is kind of already taken care of, so probably not until next spring.
   That sounds a little like a whine, but wasn't meant to be, I like to be busy.