Thundersnow strikes in Huntington County

Huntington, Ind., (WANE) - Early Friday morning a powerful winter system moved through the area.  It dropped layers of ice and snow, which made for a messy and slick morning commute.  It also produced something rare this time of year: lightning.

Although it is rare, lightning can occur with stronger snow systems.  It’s also sometimes called thundersnow.  One family in Huntington County this morning witnessed this thundersnow first hand.

Mark Pasko of Huntington was up watching First News this morning.  Here is his story in his words.

"Well, I had recent back surgery and wasn't sleeping well so I was out here [living room] watching the news early this morning.  I heard a rumble of thunder, a pretty sharp one, at about 5:30 am.  When I heard the first thunder I thought, 'Boy that's odd here in February to have this kind of weather.'

"About 15 minutes later lightning struck our house!  It was a real shock.  It sounded like a cannon going off!  The TV shot fire out the front of it, burnt around it and of course everything went dark and cold.  It was quite scary, I called 911 right away. 

"I was afraid there was fire in the attic or on top of the house or somewhere.  They got here pretty quickly, and they did a good job putting our mind at ease that there wasn't a fire.  The energy company came and replaced the transformer earlier in the morning.  Now we have electricians supposed to be here in the next hour or so [Friday afternoon].

"It will up to him then to check out the electrical system and see what’s operable.  Hopefully we'll still have a well, hopefully we'll have heat and some of the major things we hope aren't damaged.  The rest of it's going to be finding out now what appliances are shot."

While visiting the Pasko’s it was easy to see the burn marks.  There were burn marks just below the TV and also in the wall socket.  Another socket in the garage was also burned and the surge blew part of the cover off the wall.