The Dangers of Lightning During A 45404 Storm | SERVPRO of East Dayton/ Beavercreek

7/20/2020 (Permalink)

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When considering how a thunderstorm can cause damage to a Dayton home, there are two main types of damage that happen are flooding and wind damage. Although these are the typical two types of damages to occur, it is essential to consider the risks associated with lightning to your home or business. 

Did you know that lightning can occur even in the absence of precipitation? It's true; the name of this type of storm is called a dry thunderstorm. Did you also know that lightning bolts can be up to 500,000 degrees? Lightning causes damage and even fatalities in whatever they strike. At SERVPRO, we want our Dayton locals to understand what lightning is and how it can affect their home or business. With this information, we hope to help homeowners prevent the risks of lightning and storm damage.

How Do Thunderstorms and Lightning Coexist?

When we looked into Thunderstorms and lightning, we found that all thunderstorms contain the electricity that makes a lightning strike possible. 

A lightning strike is a rapid burst of electricity that occurs when this charge becomes agitated.

Lightning is always searching for an ideal lightning conductor, which is why lightning tends to strike metal objects. When a Dayton home has been struck, lightning will usually forge the path to finding a metal conductor within the metal water pipes and home wiring.

How Lightning Damage Affects Homes

There are many dangers surrounding thunderstorms. Your home might suffer from water damage, but the real issue occurs when lightning strikes a house. Here are three main problems that can occur: 

1) Fire Damage When a fire strikes home, you are guaranteed to be left with a fire damage loss. As mentioned earlier, lightning has temperatures up to about 500,000 degrees; it's hot enough to ignite any building materials in its way. Additionally, when lightning travels through your home wires, they will fray, creating fire hazards throughout your home. 

2) The risk of power surges. A power surge that can affect any electronic device plugged in that is not routed through a surge protector will be affected when lightning strikes. The electrical charge that lightning has can quickly transfer that to the wiring in the home and affect all appliances. We have heard several stories from customers who had had to replace appliances and video game consoles from lightning strikes. 

3) The risk of shock waves. Shock waves can crack chimneys, break windows, and explode cinder blocks. Shock waves are typically caused by thunder, but they can also occur at the lightning strike site, causing them to be hazardous to a home’s structure.

SERVPRO of East Dayton/Beavercreek has the knowledge and labor power to clean up any size disaster. We do not get many calls that consist of lightning strikes, but we are prepared when they do happen. We are a local restoration company that you can trust and rely on to be onsite quickly. If your home has recently suffered from a storm damage loss, please contact us. We will get your home or business back to prior loss conditions "Like it never even happened."