Stupid Thunderstorms!

[fiasconva]

So I'm on the forum yesterday afternoon and a huge thunderstorm comes up. It's actually raining sideways. Power goes out for about a minute or so and comes back on. Everything works great except I cannot get back on the internet. So I spend 45 minutes with Cox's tech support this morning only to find out my cable modem was fried. I guess the small power surge when the power came back on did it in. I go out buy a new one and spend another 45 minutes getting it up and running with tech support. I gotta give those people credit,they know their stuff. So I got a new cable modem and I'm back online. I hate this time of year. We have trees down, power outtages everywhere and it's been hotter'n Hades around here. But it's still better than snow and ice any time.

 

[ThirtyAcres]

Right now, I would trade my computer for two inches of rain or snow.

 

[JcMack]

This has been one weird weather year. We have gotten several storms of your description lately. On Monday morning another one. Trees down, power out since in places all around me. Cabelas down the street was open all day running on a backup generator. No AC though. Another bad storm predicted for tonight.

 

[RightArm]

We're having daily thunderstorms, also. A couple of guys were killed by lightening. Geniuses hid under a tree. Mostly we just have flooding, not too much wind damage. My part of town has no problems, so far.

 

[PatAz]

Maybe buy a good surge protector?

 

[matmat417]

Sounds like Houston.. rained for a week straight and now it feels like a sauna outside, or rather your wraped up in a wet sweater and in a sauna..

but this is usual for Houston.

 

[Marshwheeling]

It's not the heat, it's the humidity.

Thunder storms are a fact of life around here, especially in June and July. We got a lot of high temps, too, nothing like Texas and Arizona, but many days in the high 80s and 90s. What is different this year is the unrelenting humidity. Today, it was only 85°, but I can't remember the last time it was this uncomfortable. I think I was in Missouri.

A thunderstorm that comes in ahead of a front usually clears the air and drops the humidity, so even if the high pressure front is hot it will still be tolerable. The ones we have been getting just boil up out of the soup, and leave the air just as muggy as before.

One reason I like to travel west is that the humidity and the bug count usually drop when you cross the Missouri, but last month it was even muggy in the Black Hills. I'm going through three shirts a day, and I'm sick of it.

 

[MP22]

A good surge protector for the electric and cable can prevent that.

 

[T.L.R.]

When it starts to lightning around here everything gets UN PLUGGED. TV's, Computer, Radio's, well pump, Refrigerator.

Those surge protectors don't help if you have a close / nearby L. strike.

 

[Hobie1]

Oh to only have your problems. Our corn crops are basically turning to dust. The Mississippi is becoming un-usable for barge traffic. We haven't had any appreciable rain for months. It's so freakin hot that going to the range isn't even fun.

Send your weather up our way...please.

Hobie

 

[mwtdvm]

Repercussions

While this is not the ideal posting place, it does show that there are adverse results to our climate change. For whatever reason.. (I refuse to give any credit to that idiot AL Gore) things are happening. The failure of the midwest corn crop and the other crops in the region, soybeans, etc, will result in our prices at the grocery store going through the roof. And the Domino effect.. Beef prices go up because grain/corn prices go up and then there is the ethanol scam.... look for gas prices to go up as there is not enough corn.. Sheeesh, BOHICA (Bend over here it comes again)

 

[Frank46]

Well where I live in Louisiana we have had 22 consecutive days of rain in the form of thunderstorms. Grass is growing so fast its not funny. And yes before I forget it has been unseasonally hot down here. Frank

 

[S&WOkie]

I would welcome some "Stupid Thunderstorms"!

It's hotter than hell, and drier than a popcorn fart here!

 

[fiasconva]

Funny part is PatAz is that it was connected to a surge protector. I think the cable modem was just so old it just finally gave up. I think I bought it in '03. This new one seems to be snappier and faster so I'll live with it.

 

[rdcl]

So I spend 45 minutes with Cox's tech support this morning only to find out my cable modem was fried. I guess the small power surge when the power came back on did it in.

A couple years ago I lost my computer the same way......and it was plugged into a surge "protector" too.

This was a 40 -dollar surge protector as well......not a $6.00 cheapie.

Although I still use them, I don't put a lot of trust in surge protectors anymore. Now, during thunder & lightning I shutdown and unplug the computer & TV.

(IF I'm home, that is)

Russ

 

[LVSteve]

Funny part is PatAz is that it was connected to a surge protector. I think the cable modem was just so old it just finally gave up. I think I bought it in '03. This new one seems to be snappier and faster so I'll live with it.

It is more likely that the strike was close enough to cause a surge on the actual TV cable line. This then destroyed the receiver or transmitter of your modem.

Years ago in England I worked in a facility that had a bunch of electronics, some commercial and some custom built. One day after we had gone home and shut everything down there was a lightning strike that hit the concrete culvert that carried the big power cables into our building. It took a chunk out the outer sheathing but the maintenance guys said not to worry as it had not got into the live side. Uh-huh, so why was I changing handfuls of TTL chips for the next week? We reckon that although the equipment was off and the breakers thrown, the the GROUND side of the building power got hauled around by the strike resulting in all manner of damage.