Residents of Grand Cayman witnessed a dazzling light show as hundreds of lightning strikes lit up the sky last Thursday evening.
‘It was a pretty interesting night,’ said Fred Sambula, senior manager of Cayman’s Meteorological Services. ‘It was a good lightning storm.’
Cayman’s Meteorological Services does not have any lightning detection equipment, so Mr. Sambula was unable to give any kind of statistics about the frequency of strikes during the storm.
‘I can tell you there were substantial echoes and convective cells,’ he said. ‘There was a trough of low pressure over the area with good support at upper levels.’
Mr. Sambula said it was normal for there to be increased thunderstorm activity in Cayman in September.
Eventually, Mr. Sambula would like to see Cayman get better thunderstorm detection equipment.
‘Lightning detection equipment is something useful, especially in conjunction with Doppler radar,’ he said. ‘It would tell us what we can expect from thunderstorm activity. We could tell how severe, how frequent and how widespread lightning would be.’
Mr. Sambula said lightning detection equipment can detect lightning hundreds of miles away.
Currently, Cayman’s Meteorological Services can only use satellite imagery to gauge potential thunderstorms.
‘But it can not go into any specificity about how severe a storm might be,’ he said.
Thursday’s storm caused problems for Caribbean Utilities Company, as some of its customers experienced power outages between 7pm and 9.30pm.
The multiple strikes in various locations caused what CUC called ‘a system under frequency.’
‘The system under frequency protection system was activated,’ CUC stated in a news release Friday, ‘which is a normal occurrence during such storms as the protective devices in the company’s substations operate to stabilise the system by tripping distribution circuits to protect critical equipment and preserve the integrity of the network.’
CUC urged customers to protect their personal electrical equipment, and in fact had an advertisement booked for last Friday’s Caymanian Compass about the subject even before last week’s lightning storm.
Residents should ensure the ground rod near their electricity service entrance is maintained, and also that large appliances and critical electronic equipment have surge protectors and Uninterruptible Power Supply systems.
CUC Manager Corporate Communications Caren Thompson said that in the company’s opinion, lightning storms have been more significant this year.
‘This is based on the number of calls from customers reporting strikes in their areas,’ she said.
‘However, while the magnitude of the storm we experienced (Thursday evening) was not a common occurrence, our system withstood the effects very well and we were able to carry out restoration of service in a timely manner.
‘We had a significant number of blown fuses and some transformers were damaged and required replacement.’
Some telecommunications equipment was damaged as well by the storm.
In a statement released on Friday, Cable & Wireless said it experienced minimal effects from the lightning storm.
‘Customers remained connected as none of our core systems failed,’ it stated. ‘There were, however, a few isolated problems with two line cards that affected a small number of customers.’
Cable & Wireless said computer modems could have been damaged during the thunderstorm.
‘The cause of such damage would have been a result of lightning strikes in the vicinity of the customer’s premises or possibly from a power surge or outage, not a telecommunications problem.’
C & W’s Vice President Network Services Albert Anderson reminded customers to unplug their modems and other electronic equipment during a lightning storm.
‘It is also highly recommended that customers use surge protectors to help ensure the safety of their electronic equipment,’ he said.
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