20 feet away from being a pile of ashes!

[Dan Robinson]

Wow - great account and nice shots of the tree. Thankfully you weren't hurt!

More than likely the house was hit directly by another lightning channel 'split' rather than a fragment from the tree. It is quite common for some return strokes of a single cloud-to-ground lightning discharge to hit two or more different spots (some examples here).

As for the small sparks, the human body doesn't hold any residual charge as a result of a lightning strike. The human body can store 20,000 to 30,000 volts of potential, but a spark would immediately discharge that potential. For there to be additional sparks means there would need to be an external source of charging, like the rubbing of feet on carpet or linoleum. The small sparks afterward would have been coincidental and not caused by the strike itself.

What an experience though. I'd love to get something like that on camera from that distance!

 

[Danny Neal]

Wow - great account and nice shots of the tree. Thankfully you weren't hurt!

More than likely the house was hit directly by another lightning channel 'split' rather than a fragment from the tree. It is quite common for some return strokes of a single cloud-to-ground lightning discharge to hit two or more different spots (some examples here).

I want to say you are right. Although I didn't see it, it would make more sense. There were branches on the house and firefighters came and moved them off. I dont know if you all can see it but just to the right of where the 2nd story starts is where the initial hole and fire was coming out of. Then spread to the 2nd story.

It very well could have been another lightning stroke, but by that time I was picking myself off the floor of the car and changing my pants.

 

[Esa Tuunanen]

More than likely the house was hit directly by another lightning channel 'split' rather than a fragment from the tree. It is quite common for some return strokes of a single cloud-to-ground lightning discharge to hit two or more different spots

I could nearly swear that during one nightly frontal thunderstorm in last August there was few lightnings with four or five strokes because those felt like looking some stroboscope. And there was definitely whole lot of lightnings with two or three strokes.
So considering that I would keep such as strong possibility.


There's actually one really interesting case of this kind multiple strokes. Stromchaser saw only one lightning but when he had found place where it hit he found that there was signs of stroke in two trees 20m/60feet apart and both trees had signs of two separate lightning channels:
tree 1, tree 2

 

[Gerrit Gulden]

Glad to hear your ok. From the looks of it, it was one hell of a bolt that struck that tree. Thankfully it didnt hit the tree to where the tree lost stability and then crashed down.

I had a pretty scary run-in with lightning back in 1998, I was in Rancho Cucamonga, Ca helping move a Jackuzzi to a backyard. We were just about hlafway thru the yard when the hairs on our airms started to raise and you could hear static cracks in the air, We did notice the convection and had just enough time to lower the jackuzzi and get under the roof and as soon as we did we heard the crack of thunder. Pretty much everytime after that I havent experienced the static, but the immediate explosion of lightning still gets me to this day.

Glad your okay dude.

-gerrit

 

[Angie Norris]

I had my first close encounter way before my chase days began. My kid had spent the night at his cousin's and it was storming a bit when I picked him up. I was getting into the car (which was parked under a telephone pole) when the hair on my neck began to prickle up. I dove in the car closing the door when there was a tremendous crack of thunder. Yep, lightning hit the telephone pole...a good 20-30 minutes after the storm had passed. No ill effects, and my kid's comment was "wow...that was cool...you ok, mom?"
Best close encounter to date was in KS...June 4, 2005. Shane, Chad and Mickey were in the lead car, and Jo and I were following. We were driving down a Bob's road when there was an incredible explosion right outside the car. I could feel heat coming through the window, my hands and arms were tingling (I was driving) and Jo said it felt like her ears were going to explode. The bolt was close enough that we really didn't see it until we got home and watched the vid. Very cool !!!

 

[Jesse Risley]

I was facing the opposite direction. shooting an oncoming line of storms. I was standing with my foot in the car, camera in my right hand and hand on the roof of the car.

Interesting...I remember that day very well. That same family of storms initially became supercellular over central Illinois near Henry. I intercepted the storm near my hometown of Streator and tracked it northeast. The family produced two independent supercells, and I'm guessing you about got zapped by the storm that moved south and paralleled IL Route 17. That storm produced some nasty hail near Manville and Blackstone before hitting the Dwight area.

The second cell moved more NE through Ransom and into southern Grundy County. That was an interesting day, as I believe the SPC only had the area in a slight risk. The route 17 corridor was active for a few summers, but not sure how it's been since I moved down here to "forgottonia" land.

 

[Danny Neal]

Interesting...I remember that day very well. That same family of storms initially became supercellular over central Illinois near Henry. I intercepted the storm near my hometown of Streator and tracked it northeast. The family produced two independent supercells, and I'm guessing you about got zapped by the storm that moved south and paralleled IL Route 17. That storm produced some nasty hail near Manville and Blackstone before hitting the Dwight area.

The second cell moved more NE through Ransom and into southern Grundy County. That was an interesting day, as I believe the SPC only had the area in a slight risk. The route 17 corridor was active for a few summers, but not sure how it's been since I moved down here to "forgottonia" land.

Dead on man! Good call. Thats what happened, pretty powerful, alot of wind damage I saw on the second storm. Best Areas for chasing in northern/central IL are between the Route 24 and Route 17 corridors. Alot of interesting things tend to happen there. 03 especially I think almost chased everyday in June.