Video When Lightning Zapped My Internet Modem & Router
Lightning and a Router don’t go together very well. UNLESS, you preemptively do something about it. I did, after my router was damaged by lightning. Should’ve done it sooner! (My recommendation below).
Lately, every afternoon we have been getting thunderstorms. In fact they’re all around me right now as I type this…
Which is what reminded me of a video that I took a few years ago during a thunderstorm when a lightning bolt zapped directly overhead and blew up a few things in the house…including my internet router.
I searched through my files and found it (the video). There was a severe thunderstorm warning, and I saw it coming as I watched my radar app. So what did I do? I decided to video the event.
Actually the entire video is 10 minutes long from when it began until the rainbow appeared over the mountains. But I snipped out a 20 second segment which began 2 minutes into the video itself.
I opened the slider to the deck and started filming (not recommended)….
Thunder and Lightning picked up in intensity. Getting closer. Then two minutes later a bolt zapped directly overhead!
You know how that goes… You see the extra bright flash with it’s crisp accompanying zap — and you cringe as you know that a few milliseconds later the air’s going to explode. And it does…
KA-BOOM!!
Here it is for your viewing and listening pleasure. I call it, “router lightning”…
Lightning Zapped my Router
You can hear the ‘snap’ ‘snap’ as the router gets zapped / damaged.
The result was a blown up internet modem and external router. Down for a few days till the replacements arrived.
So why am I posting this? Well, severe weather events can be exhilarating to observe. But dangerous too. It wasn’t too smart of me to be standing in the open slider doorway filming this. I won’t do that again!
And, from now on, I will plug my internet modem and router into a high quality surge protector!
Router Surge Protector
I researched for a very good surge protector brand. I now have several of these. They make them with varying number of outlets. I use this particular surge protector for my modem / router because it simply plugs directly into an existing outlet. Convenient.
Tripp Lite Isobar 2 Outlet
(view on amzn)
[ Read: Best Surge Protector For Value Electronics ]
Lightning is the obvious danger here. They say if you can hear thunder, lightning can strike at your location (even if it’s seemingly far away). There are some lightning bolts that can travel great distances. Ever heard of a bolt out of the blue? Well, it can happen!
So anyway, I thought I would share the video segment for fun…
Whole House Lightning Protection
Also, I now have ‘whole house’ protection installed at my electrical service panel.
Here’s a thought: Lightning Protection for your house. EMPShield.com makes various devices for this type of protection, depending on your application:
