Mega tree pole & Lightning

[Jayxdallis]

Hi all

Bit of an Engineering question here, I have a 6.5m steel pole inserted into a concrete socket in the ground and with a few storms around at the moment had me wondering about lightning strikes and what I should be doing to protect or prevent such an occurrence?

Lightning is not too prevalent during light season but it is always possible and I fear if this pole attracted a hit I would say goodbye to all my lights and if enough potential in the ground most of my electronics in the house too!

Regards,

Jay

 

[Mark_M]

A metal rod in the ground means it's earthed already.
Weak point in a strike I can think of is hitting a tree topper (coro star) and that jolts the electrical gear.

In terms of risk...
Any tall/high metal poles around? Surely the neighbours have a TV antenna higher up than your pole.

That's just my thoughts. If it went 10m in the air I would get concerned.

 

[Notenoughlights]

I think of it this way, the potential between sky and ground during a storm is millions of volts. If it can jump 500M down to the ground, the extra 6m to the tree topper or the ground 50m to the left, won't make much difference. If it strikes anywhere nearby it'll most likely do damage to electronics regardless due to the static charges.