Electrical storms

Yesterday we had pretty violent electrical storms, the first for quite a while, and the first since I changed my broadband to fibre and moved to my current address

As usual, I disconnected the router from both the telephone line and the power supply, and the sky box from the power supply

Is this still necessary? Our power and phone lines are underground unlike our previous house

More thunderstorms are forecast for overnight tonight and I will probably disconnect before going to bed, but if this happens too often I guess I may start to lose speed, currently running at around 48Mbps down

I find this lightning indicator useful

http://www.lightningmaps.org/?lang=en#y=55.9915;x=-4...

VDSL2 can still be affected, and modems are still sensitive to surges induced in wiring but with underground lines a lot less of an issue

NOTE OF CAUTION: If a storm is close and there are down strikes close then you don't want to be going near wiring just in case your wiring takes a strike as you provide a path to ground.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

NOTE OF CAUTION: If a storm is close and there are down strikes close then you don't want to be going near wiring just in case your wiring takes a strike as you provide a path to ground.

That's a useful reminder to which should be added that it is very dangerous to try to disconnect a co-ax cable from an outdoor tv aerial during an electrical storm

I have lost two dial up 56k modems to lightning strikes.

I did hear thunder last light. Apparently there were more than 120,000 lightning flashes over the South East and northern France at that time. Maybe it is just as well that I now no longer have anything connected to my overhead telephone lime.

People do get killed by lightning whilst in their own homes, but this is less common than it used to be due to the introduction of plumbing and electric cables.

I have never turned it off and never had an issue, but I have heard of some people who have experienced problems. I had lightning 2 second away (when timing difference between flashing and noise).

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

People do get killed by lightning whilst in their own homes, but this is less common than it used to be due to the introduction of plumbing and electric cables.

From "Deaths and injuries from lightning in the UK, 1988�2012, Elsom and Webb, 2014" available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264288554_D...:

"There were 47 fatalities during the 25-year period, averaging two deaths per annum. Annual variation ranged from none in 2000, 2001, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011 to five deaths in 1994 and 1996. All fatalities occurred outdoors (Table 4)."

Less common to the extent that no indoor deaths were recorded in the UK between 1988 and 2012 if the research is to be believed.

Edited by GonePostal (Tue 30-May-17 01:55:36)