Determines a method for evaluating lightning currents from nearby strokes to earth, trees, or grounded structures that can arc to metallic members of a directly buried optical fiber cable. In high-resistivity soils, or where there is a conductive path (such as a tree root), a strike more than a hundred meters away from the cable can still arc to it. Serious damage to the cable can occur from the thermal and mechanical stresses produced by such events. The intent of this test procedure is to provide a method for electrical-impulse testing of fiber optic cable using specified current waveforms and peak-current levels. The purpose of the method is to simulate the effects of the lightning arc at the point where it attaches to the cable and to establish the relative susceptibility of fiber optic cables to damage from such arcing.