Last night's electrical storm

amandstu

was very close to the house and ,the moment the power went I noticed(saw and heard) a fizzle (like a sparkler) outside the window.

At first I thought it was inside the room and that the fuse box had been hit.
However the phone was now dead and so I assumed that the lightning had hit the phone line that runs down the wall through the ivy on the outside wall.

An hour later enough the power came back on -but so did the phone connection(that came back after about 10 minutes).

Surely it would have been down for good if the phone line had been hit?
Can the phone line be disabled temporarily like that ?

(I could have been mistaken about the line being dead I suppose if ,say, the phone wsn't sitting correctly in its cradle at the outset)

Mr Benevolent

Could have been a single negative GC strike or a streamer. Try not to use a landline during a thunderstorm, it's one of the most common ways of getting hit.

amandstu

thanks.I'll remember that!

patmac

Confab wrote: »

Could have been a single negative GC strike or a streamer. Try not to use a landline during a thunderstorm, it's one of the most common ways of getting hit.

I don't think thats the case anymore as the lines have been insulated against lightening.

Conor30

Where was this thunderstorm??

irishgeo

amandstu wrote: »

was very close to the house and ,the moment the power went I noticed(saw and heard) a fizzle (like a sparkler) outside the window.

At first I thought it was inside the room and that the fuse box had been hit.
However the phone was now dead and so I assumed that the lightning had hit the phone line that runs down the wall through the ivy on the outside wall.

An hour later enough the power came back on -but so did the phone connection(that came back after about 10 minutes).

Surely it would have been down for good if the phone line had been hit?
Can the phone line be disabled temporarily like that ?

(I could have been mistaken about the line being dead I suppose if ,say, the phone wsn't sitting correctly in its cradle at the outset)

a cordless phone wont work if the power is off.

A cordless phone is a lot safer to use during a thunderstorm than a wireless phone as the danger lightening hits the house , its been known to the knock the phone off the wall.

Another thing to wary off is that your internet router should be plugged out from the phone as well as i seen computers wrecked because went though the router down the network cable and fried the PC connected to the router.