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Bud--

wrote:
A couple nights ago we had a really bad storm. Five inches of rain in
an hour. I now have ruts all over the place. But that's not why I'm
posting. During the storm I unplugged everything because the
lightning was really bad. I only things I left turned on were a few
lights, a window fan, and my battery operated weather radio. The
power went of several times, but it would come back on in less than a
minute. This is pretty normal, especially out here in the country.
Generally a bright and close flash of lightning will cause this. All
of a sudden there was another very bright flash of lightning, and the
lights went out, but this time when they came back on, the bulbs were
barely lit. Just a dull glow, as if they were getting half or less
voltage. These are common incadesant bulbs, not CF bulbs. They
remained in this barely on state for maybe a half minute, and the fan
motor had a noticable hum. Then they came back on to normal
brightness.

I can understand the power going totally off, and know the power
company has resets on poles and such, but why did I get this half
power thing? I'm glad I unplugged the electronics or I might be
replacing lots of stuff.

I know someone is going to ask, so I have 120/240 single phase in the
house. This was not something just in my house, both my, and my
neighbors yard lights went out.

Could be a power line was knocked to the ground, resulting in high
current, producing a voltage drop, and a fuse finally opened.

Or a transformer shorted and the fuse finally opened

As you lower the voltage on an incandescent bulb, the brightness goes
down a lot faster than the voltage.

--
bud--