Do you shut all your windows in a thunderstorm?

[FairfaxAikman]

DF thinks I'm mad for getting up at 2am to shut all the windows once a thunderstorm started here.
He thinks there is no danger in leaving the windows open when it was so hot last night.
I admit the risk is low but think it's still electricity and you don't fuck about with electricity.

WWYD?

My granny used to open the doors in a thunderstorm. something to do with lightening bolts coming down the chimney and needing an exit out.

Someone I used to know wouldn't touch taps if there was a thunderstorm.

When I was a child I remember my mum getting a shock off the cold tap during a thunderstorm. We lived very close the reservoir up the Yorkshire Dales and can only think the lightening struck the water or something.

I used to close mine because I was scared of storms
I'm a bit braver these days.

I admit the risk is low

Risk of what though? And how does closing windows lower this risk?

Genuinely intrigued!

I slept through it and I'm still alive, Windows we're open as wide as we could get them. We have a tree in front of our house so the breeze from it helps cool the bedroom.

I'm more afraid of waking up with the dog eating me because they'd mistaken me for a piece of cooked meat if I'd left the windows shut

I opened the windows in the early evening to let some cool air in, and then forgot all about them so my windows were wide open during the storm.

My mum used to make us turn the TV off....

The knobs blew off our tv when our aerial got struck by lightning! This was in the early 80s when tvs had knobs

I am mystified to what you think the risk could possibly be to be honest.

And we didn’t get a thunderstorm here anyway so I’m jealous. I might have gone out in it.

God no.

I came downstairs last night and opened the french doors as wide as possible.

It was an amazing storm.

I don’t understand your way of thinking? It’s in the news that people’s houses caught fire last night due to lightening. Surely that’s more of a concern to you? So if you were worried about safety the logic would be to go sit out in the car instead of staying in doors. No?

We had a tv aerial on a chimney pot when I was a kid, lightning struck it and blew out the tv which in turn caused a fire and it also demolished the chimney and part of the roof . It was one almighty bang and I remember my Mum saying get out get out so we had to stand outside in the rain in our jammies until NDN took us in and then the fire service arrived. Very very scary for me at 9 years old and now I do not like thunderstorms at all. Lightning will find the nearest earth and that was our tv aerial so I do not have one now and yes I can understand unplugging a tv if you have an outside
aerial

I am intrigued by what risks are involved, but also this:

We have a tree in front of our house so the breeze from it helps cool the bedroom.

Do trees create breezes?

Never heard of this lol I always deliberately open the windows!

I only pulled them close to stop the rain coming in.

It has made me think of my 4-year-old think the trees made the wind because she could see them moving on a windy day and had got cause and effect mixed up.

My dad always used to unplug electrical stuff especially TVs during a storm. But my gran had had a lightening strike on her aerial which ce down the cable and blew the tv up....not sure if that's still a risk these days.

I'm not worried about ball lightening, it's very rare so dont close windows. Dh did last night because of the rain and I yelled at him to open them again, was far too hot.

Remember a leaflet from fire prevention saying unplug all electrics as fork lightning would blow fuses🤔

Nope. Our windows are open all year round.

If we are going to get struck, a piece of glass won't help.

However, I found out last night that my DH, whilst not scared as such of lightening, has some pretty bizarre irrational thoughts around it, due to his parents actions when he was a kid.
I am the irrational one in our relationship and I love a good electrical storm, so I was pretty gobsmacked to say the least. I love him a little bit more for it today

Someone lost their roof nearby last night. Don't know if they had the windows open or closed.

Ideally you actually should although it is rare for lightning to come in directly through the window. It's much more common for people to be indirectly struck through plumbing or cables.

Lightning safety is a specialist interest of mine

Yes, to stop the rain coming in! Ds2’s carpet was sodden within a few minutes of the storm starting last night.

I was literally hanging out of the velux in the attic last night enjoying the storm, there was not a single window closed in my house!

Trust me on this your fine! If your that worried re lightning then get a lightning conductor fitted.

However the chances of being hit are very small indeed, very small and if Jove has decieded that he's going to have a larff and chuck one of his bolts at your manor then having the windows open or not isnt makeing anything better, or worse for that matter.

A very few houses were hit last night considering the number in the UK thats almost neglible.

Have a bit of fun with this site it shows in almost real time where the lightning activity is, in fact if you zoom in close enough you can see the Thunder shock wave! It works in the principle of a big spark emits a lot of radio energy and several monitoring stations around europe, we host one!, are correlated together and this is the result.

www.lightningmaps.org/?lang=en#m=oss;t=3;s=0;o=0;b=0.00;ts=0;y=51.8799;x=0.3845;z=8;d=2;dl=2;dc=0;

No, not unless its also raining and the rain is coming in.

I would only close them to stop rain coming in nothing to do with a thunderstorm