Stormfly

You would be surprised at the number of folks that "should know better" that don't. They ASSume if there is no smoke, buzzing, sparking, etc. that everything is safe. Same kind of folks you never trust handing an "unloaded" firearm to you as well. If something can kill, it will without any warning at any time. Always presume the worst can happen and you live to do the next job, generally speaking. These last few days would not be fun at all if the temp was in the upper 90s with 80 DP, say like we had this time in July 1995. Anyone remember that heatwave?

I was in Belair MD getting an inspection wrapped up. Knew it was coming and it came fast! Captured this Short video before rain/hail chased us to cover: At home near sunset, we noticed very much fire in the sky! Not just your normal reddish/orange glow but everything had the appearance of being viewed with a pink salmon filter! Red sky sailor's delight, yeah right! (As long as said sailor is equipped with a 32kW Northern Lights EDG!) Our power was out for about 8 hours which was a true blessing as I know some that just got restored early this AM and there are still folks without power. I'm taking a long needed break. (finally)

No but it has a good chance to push your restoration time back even further. What a mess this has been, have not seen this sort of disruption in services and damage since Irene/Derecho/Sandy.

Nothingburger stands are bigger than firework stands here in northern MD!

Happy Birthday. Unfortunately if you want legit severe, you definitely need to hit the road!

Same, I mean we always hear them but last night and especially tonight it was definitely reminding me of Beirut in 1983.

Yes that is a good idea. Tree work is something you don't want to get involved with and realize the job was beyond your abilities! Definitely the safe way to go.

That is best tackled by supporting the trunk to the left (only to make it easier for buck cuts) and cut near the base and let the root ball swing to the right of your kerf. Make sure the ground has had time to dry up so you have good footing!

Heathkits were awesome! Sad they went out of business.

Great capture! That would be a lens reflection. You can make it that it mirrors the bolt and the predominately green wavelength depicted is indicative of remnants of the coating used. I've seen these many times in videos and some even appear real as the sound in the video reveals a snapping noise. However the snapping noise is from sideflashes occurring from nearby conductors that picked up enough potential from the nearby strike to arc over to conductive objects of lower potential. Interestingly enough, energy from those sideflashes often find their way into sensitive electronic equipment often bypassing spike protection in the power supply usually due to alternate paths. Bolts that long, that close are extremely sharp/loud similar to a centerfire rifle cartridge. Running a Tesla coil at a "lowly" (in comparison) 50kW input with a secondary coil (magnifier), frequent D'Arsonval discharges were experienced that were about 15-20' long and were quite loud even with ear protection.

Working hot is fine if you have the necessary PPE and training. Yes those screws have gotten me and I've got scars to prove it! Believe it not the nastiest "bite" came from a CRT chassis. AFTER the (picture) tube was discharged, it sat and built up enough charge that it got me and part of the housing sliced my arm open. The charge wasn't even that strong, perhaps a few joules. Element of surprise gets me every time.

When the transformer shorted to ground the fuse on the pole cutout opened with a report similar to a 12 gauge! Hard fault. That transformer was from the early 70s. When there is a secondary fault the cutouts don't always open, the fuses hold and the transformer will supply well in excess of its kva rating. This is why its paramount to call before digging! Secondaries running from the transformer to the building service demarc are unfused and if shorted in excavation operations, for example, the results are pretty impressive. 110VAC can definitely kill. This is why pool/spa/restroom wiring has GFCIs. Touching a faulty appliance while another part of your body is touching water or otherwise well grounded can produce a lethal shock. Then there are secondary injuries that can occur even when the equipment disconnect is open and fuses are removed! Typically with HVAC rooftop units. Reaching inside a chassis and coming in contact with a charged capacitor creates the surprise of the century and the resulting reaction of pulling a hand out pronto causing one's arm to come in contact with protruding self tapping chassis screws everywhere! That'll open you up nice and the zap is a faint memory at that point when you need a dozen stitches or so.

Cone of silence! Heard ONE, yes ONE rumble of thunder here. All bark, no bite. Before it blew in (haha) I had to snap the sky, it was MEAN looking! YT video processing, will update with link but in the meantime... Ok here's some video. The original is HDR10 UHD and it will (eventually) work once processed but for now it's here:

Yeah the pioneer (corn) fields were flattened as far as the eye could see.

Baseball+ for us. Roof damage (45 squares of dimensional shingles), ridge vents destroyed, 13 windows broken, gutters removed, attic ventilator looked like it was shot with buckshot, and aluminum siding in similar condition. RV nearly totaled (back before the GRP siding days). Car windscreens spider webbed. Even our redwood picnic table had severe damage to its planks and a well build ducane propane grill top was dented in! I saw the needle of my weatherhelm remote anemometer nearly pegged at 109 mph before retreating to the basement. Quite scary TBH.

Whole lot of lightning to our west!

I saw that happen in 1998. 50kVA pad mounted transformer. When a phase went out BGE changed taps. When the last one opened they had the knuckleboom dropping in a new one. Ridge Gardens apartments. That area got a lot of severe in the mid to late 90s. So much tree damage and cleanup too. Then the derecho comes through in '12 and makes about the same mess as that decade! Severe action and tree work (specifically felling) have a lot in common. Like a big party. Everyone wants in on the action but the next day when it's time to clean up the mess no one wants to contribute. Last time we saw excitement was the day before Isaias came through. Feeder switch test failed and a 7.2kv feeder that runs between our parking pad and lane decided to shoot pink fire up into the air, full Dracarys mode! Singed the grass, melted asphalt and nearly got my work truck. Even in the pouring down rain of a thunderstorm I had to chase the flames with a big CO2 extinguisher 5 minutes after the power was cut. Fun times!

Hail is the last thing I want. Anything over mothball sized is absolutely unwelcome here! Had a $60k claim on State Farm in 1980. That's ~ $213k in today's dollars. My lightning dets are going crazy right now, very energized cells to our west.

Transformer explosions rarely happen. The flashes visible are arc faults or simply power flashes where something comes in contact with lines or a line is on the ground arcing producing lots of light. Pole mounted transformers are extremely robust, I've seen secondary faults burn through an entire pole and while the pole and transformer ended up on the ground, the transformer was still functional but damaged only from the fall! In substations where larger transformers are used where 500kV may be stepped down to 33kV, for example, faults here are quite spectacular and if it goes up in flames its usually due to the oil heating up to the point where the internal pressure reaches limits and safety devices vent the oil which instantly vaporizes and ignites when it contacts something hot (like an arc). Well known events involving substations include NYC: Closer to home, there was an incident on 12/21/2012, the day the world was supposed to end. Freaked a lot of folks out in the Annapolis area IIRC. During strong winds at night when your lights start flickering, dimming or going out and come back on, listen carefully. You may hear humming. And if you go outside you may see that eerie looking glow. In rural areas where overhead lines and trees are close together, this is commonplace. It's also annoying when a limb large enough to not be cleared by reclosers trips them out and you have to wait for crews to clear the fault.

Compared to what it could be, yes I will definitely take it! If we have a year without a summer, we'll probably have a year without a winter. Aka mid 40s at night. With rain. Peepers by the creek (instead of sleigh bells)!

Red sky at night, sailor's delight! It was very pleasant working pre-dusk in the meadows. Had numerous fireflies land on me. I let them crawl to the end of my fingers, point them skyward, they extend their wings and take off. It's almost magical.

Just imagine if they took all the ethereum mining hardware and used BOINC clients on them for crunching that data what the throughput would be like! DC (distributed computing) is crazy powerful but alas, greed always takes precedence.

Run bases? The John Shelby edition walker express allows you to steal them!

Nice thundershower, watered the garden with a bit over a third of an inch.

You serious Clark? I thought I was the oldest one here! Happy Birthday Mappy!