Meteorologists captured a video of a direct lightning strike into a weather radar in the city of Brownsville (Texas, USA). The video of the lightning strike was uploaded on October 30, 2015 to the video channel of the National Weather Service of Brownsville with the following description:
Derek Urch, a technician from NWS Brownsville, captured lightning striking a WSR-88D radar that caused failure of radiolocation data during a flash flood.
Video of the lightning striking the weather radar
Luckily there were no serious consequences and a technician managed to restore radar operation the following day.
Such lightning strikes resulting in destruction and data loss are not a rarity. Recently we wrote about an incident that impacted internet giant Google, which lost user data as a result of a direct lightning strike.
It is rather difficult to protect oneself against all possible weather conditions, but it is possible. Necessary measures on installing external lightning protection equipment that intercept lightning, as well as grounding devices that pass and distribute dangerous current lightning into the ground and internal lightning protection equipment to defend against impulse interference and overvoltages, are taken in order to protect a facility, including personnel and equipment, from the direct and secondary consequences of lightning. Read more in the article series written by professor E. M. Bazelian.