Lightning up

by Simon Handby in At home on 07.08.08

As most people in South East England are probably all too aware, last night saw an almighty thunderstorm that rumbled on for several hours. I was trying to finish some writing with my window wide open, but eventually accepted defeat and picked up the camera.

Unfortunately, this is probably the best shot I got, which just serves me right for being too lazy to throw on a waterproof and go outside with a tripod.

We’re all talking about the storm today, and I coughed up a family anecdote that normally rears its head at these times: when my brother and I were children, mum would come into our rooms and move our beds away from the wall every time there was a thunderstorm.

The reasoning behind this is simple enough: if the house gets struck by lightning, mum reckons, the current will travel through the external walls, barbequing anything in contact with them - a bed with a child in it, for instance. Of course, this madcap idea resulted in me getting to watch a lot of thunderstorms I would otherwise have slept through, but also it came in for withering derision as soon as my brother and I learned sarcasm.

But houses do get hit by lightning - at least two were last night. Also, my aunt was inside one that was. To be fair it was a few years ago and I’m not sure if the house itself was hit or whether the strike was on a nearby electricity line, but the result was to send several tens of thousands of volts through the house’s wiring, out of a light fitting, into my aunt and back out through one of her toes - blowing a hole in her shoe and knocking off a toenail in the process.

Fortunately she suffered no other injuries, and the damage to her house wasn’t too severe, but it just goes to show that you don’t have to be playing golf atop a hill to get hit by lightning.

In fact, as I discovered to my chagrin a couple of years ago, it can even happen to you in bed. Sorry mum.