ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — "It lit up the sky, and you could hear the crack," said Jenny Kinlaw, describing the lighting that hit her house in the Silverleaf neighborhood in northwest St. Johns County.
"Half of our lights were out. All our closet lights were out. Our appliances got fried," she said.
That was last summer. This summer, more of her neighbor’s homes have been hit as well.
"Two other houses on our street and one behind us were struck," she said.
Sherry Hamilton-Leach lives around the corner. She said, "There were several houses that were hit. They’re kind of like, 'why are we being hit? Why are we being picked on?'"
One neighbor has even started tracking the lighting strikes that have hit homes, counting nine houses that have been hit in the last four months. All of them are within a few blocks of each other.
Some neighbors are wondering if this is a bad area for lighting or if this is an active storm season.
Meteorologist Tim Deegan said, "It’s really been an average thunderstorm season."
So if there’s no extra lighting this summer, Deegan said there are others things that could be at play here.
One factor could be that this is a brand-new neighborhood. Silverleaf is just a little more than a year old. Much of it is still under construction. It used to be woods and farmland.
Deegan pondered, "Is it simply humans are noticing what farm animals and trees had to deal with?"
This area of northwest St. Johns County is under development, Deegan said, "because it is so new, because it was so rural, there’s not a lot of other commercial building (for lightning) to hit. There are not a lot of other towers to hit."
Or it might have something to do with geography.
Deegan explained, just as there is a sea breeze from the ocean, there is a river breeze from the St. Johns River.
"Now that’s significant for St. Johns County. Because in St. Johns County… that river there is wider than once you get up to Duval. Plus in Duval it bends," he noted.
"So therefore," Deegan added, "not only would northern St. Johns county be getting thunderstorms from the sea breeze coming in from the Atlantic, but they might be getting some that form along the banks of the St. Johns River."
Kinlaw said, "It’s interesting to see how many houses in a year’s time have been hit on the same street or right behind."
She added that her family bought a surge protector, so they don't have to deal with lightning knocking out her appliances again.