The National Weather Service has created a map that shows how frequently different parts of the United States experience thunderstorms. According to that map, the entire West Coast averages only about five thunderstorm days per year. Much of New England has fewer than thirty such days per year. As you move toward the center of the country, the frequency increases to about fifty. In almost all of the South, the number rises to at least sixty, and keeps going up until you hit Florida, where it is as high as ninety. Then there's a very small area of west-central Florida, centered around the Tampa Bay region, which experiences an annual average of one hundred thunderstorm days, the highest in the lower forty-eight states.

Guess where I live?

My city of Tampa even names its ice hockey team after a particular weather phenomenon known to spell potential disaster for electronic equipment.

Since the time I wrote my last Digital Genealogy column, Mother Nature decided to pay a call to my home computer, resulting in a not-inexpensive repair bill to replace the computer's motherboard. As many Florida storms do, this one had come up suddenly, and even though I was indeed using a surge protector, it wasn't enough. Fortunately, none of the data on my hard drive was affected, including all of that precious genealogical research data. Within a day or two, I was back in business, and I even took the opportunity to increase the amount of my computer's memory from 64M to 128M.

I cannot imagine owning expensive electronic equipment and not having it plugged into a surge suppressor, at the very least. Although it is obvious from my own experience that these devices cannot guarantee protection from lightning strikes, they do reduce the chances of damage, and some even come with a form of insurance where the company promises to pay for any repairs caused by the failure of the suppressor to protect your equipment.

When you shop for a surge protector, be sure to get one that includes protection for your phone line. Lightning can not only get into your computer through the usual power lines, but it can also use your computer's modem connection to the phone lines as another path. I know of someone whose combination modem and sound card was damaged a few years ago by such a strike.

If you live in an area with frequent thunderstorms, as I do, or an area that experiences significant power outages (blackouts and brownouts), an ordinary surge suppressor may not be sufficient to meet your needs. Because I spend so much time on my home computer, I don't want to have to worry about having to shut it down throughout Florida's tropical season every time that I hear the distant sound of thunder. I have now invested in an "uninterruptible power supply," conveniently abbreviated as "UPS."

A UPS is essentially a large battery that acts as an intermediary between your computer hardware and the household current. The household current keeps it charged, and should your home experience an interruption in power due to a brownout or lightning strike, the battery takes over immediately, giving you plenty of time to safely save and close your files and shutdown your system. My CPU and monitor are now on the UPS battery backup, while my other devices, such as my inkjet printer and cable modem, are on its surge suppressor. The UPS I purchased happens to include special software and a cable that connects the UPS to my computer, so that in the event of a power outage, the UPS will automatically save my files, close them, and shut down my computer, even without my being present.

Of course, having all of this special electrical protection equipment doesn't mean you shouldn't be concerned about backing up your important data, but that's a topic for another day!

Drew Smith is an instructor with the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Florida in Tampa. He is also a regular contributor to the quarterly journal Genealogical Computing, where he writes the "Cybrarian" column. He can be reached at drewsmith@aol.com.