It is summertime and you know what that means – it is thunderstorm season again. Every year, we experience about 100,000 thunderstorms in the U.S, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). And about 10% of these storms are severe. While thunderstorms can happen at any hour, they’re more likely during the afternoon and evening hours.

All thunderstorms have lightning – since you can’t have thunder without the lightning first. And lightning can strike anywhere there is a thunderstorm. In the U.S., we have about 25 million lightning strikes a year.

Lightning can cause property damage, fires, injuries and even fatalities. While you’re safe inside your home (for the most part) during a thunderstorm, your home, including your chimney, is vulnerable to damage from lightning strikes. Usually, lightning will strike the top of your chimney and travel down the chimney, exiting either inside or outside your home. When lightning strikes your masonry chimney, it can:

• Take out huge chucks of bricks or stonework from your chimney.
• Scatter bricks or stones across your roof and/or on the ground.
• Crack and damage your chimney lining.
• Cause your chimney to collapse.
• Start a chimney fire.

When metal chimneys are struck by lightning, they can warp, buckle or become detached.

Additionally, you can have massive internal damage to your chimney and not have any visible damage from the exterior.

If lightning strikes your chimney, you need to call the experienced chimney professionals at T.J.’s Chimney Service, located in Greenfield, IN. They can evaluate your chimney and make recommendations on repair and replacement. They also offer a full range of repairs to chimney systems – big or small, including masonry repair, flue relining, replacement of damaged chase tops, rebuilding of cracked chimney crowns and completely reconstructing the chimney.

If you need a chimney professional to assess your chimney damage and make repairs, call us today at 317-455-5310.