Covering the thunderstorm that sweeped across the Tampa Bay area on Thursday morning, WTVT experienced the severity of the weather system first-hand as a lightning strike knocked the Fox-affiliate off the air for several minutes.
The strike caused a temporary power outage at the station and viewers were left with dead air on their TVs.
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While the engineering team worked frantically to get WTVT back on the air, the station used its website to keep viewers updated on the severe weather, as well as the status of its TV signal. Shortly before noon, the station was back on the air.
Here’s video of WTVT’s broadcast as the station is hit by lightning (the dead air has been edited out of this video):
[via Florida News Center and the St. Petersburg Times]