The Closest You Personally Have Been to Lightning



Chris Wilburn and I were staying in a hotel in Clinton, Ok when, according to others that were staying in the hotel that nigh and could see our room and the roof above it, claim that the bolt hit almost directly above our room. My camera was sitting just outside the doorway which was left open. The hotel was two stories tall. I've also had some cg hit with in about 200-300 yards of me while driving and with the camera off during a chase.
 
back in 98 or 99 we had a gust front come in with severe thunderstorms, me and a buddy of mine that lived with me went outside to see the storm and let me remind you that storm looked like storms from the midwest, when we walked out in the front yard to watch it big rain drops started to fall and all of sudden a huge CG came out of the sky and it looked like it hit the house so we ran inside and my buddy looked out in the backyard and saw my dad laying in the middle of the yard, so i ran outside and the winds were like 70 mph (found out later it was a microburst) and picked my father up off the ground and brought him inside, and later found out that he was in the back yard talking to his girlfriend on the phone and the bolt of lightning came down and struck him which made him fly in the middle of the yard. later that night i was talking with him and he didnt know who i was or my friend so i called the west barnstable fire department and had him rushed to the hospital. when i got there to see him he had 2 burn marks on him, the lightning had entered through his parts in between his legs and went through his foot. that scared me alot.
 
I wanted to send you a PM Forrest, but I can't because I'm still a jr. member. So sorry if this is against the rules, but may I ask, how did your story with your dad end, does he suffer from memory loss or went everything back to normal again?

Greetings,

Koos
 
he came out of the memory a day after, the only thing that he suffers from to this day is that somthing doesnt work anymore. which he told me that he doesnt care about that anymore cause hes not gonna have more kids.
 
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sorry david but i wanted to tell the truth, at least i wasnt rude about it. but i did just re-word it.
 
id say that was close, from where me and my friend were standing and from where my dad was in the back of the house i think it was very close if he got thrown at lease 15 feet away! scary stuff right there!
 
Somehow, I guess I missed this thread before. My closest encounters were not chasing. Some years before I began chasing, I was fishing from the shore of Carlyle lake near Keyesport, IL. A storm was coming, but as often is the case, the fish were biting right before the storm and I caught a couple very nice bass, so I held out as long as possible. Finally it was evident it was no longer safe, so as it was lunchtime I went into the Keyesport Harbor Restaurant for a beer and a burger. Just after I got my beer, I observed a simultaneous flash and crash as I saw a bolt hit the mast of a sailboat docked about 50 feet from where I was sitting. It produced an awesome shower of sparks, and turned the top foot or so of the mast from white to black. A split second later, the cook came running out of the kitchen, white as a sheet and screaming incoherently. Turns out the other branch of the bolt that hit the sailboat had hit the building we were in, and sent a shower of sparks out of the vent over the stove where she was cooking my burger! So about 10 feet from me on that one. The burger came well-done, LOL! Seriously, I was glad I moved inside when I did! I was also on a plane once over Arizona that got struck. Later that flight was the first time I ever heard a pilot actually use the word "thunderstorm" when talking to passengers.

Chasing, I have seen bolts hit in fields next to me on multiple occasions, probably 100 feet or so at the closest. Here's a video capture of one hitting in a field a couple hundred yards away on July 13, 2006:

lightning713-cr2.jpg
 
I'm glad there is a thread on this subject.
This is my first year of chasing.
I've had two close encounters with tornadoes; w/funnels just over my head.
But three really close encounters with lightning.

The most dangerous was in Elgin NE on July 15th.
I was eSpotting a 56k foot high storm that began E of Oneill that was moving twards Omaha NE - that had a whole scad of funnel clouds. I stuck around for the RFD - like a dumb-@$$ newbie that I am.
There was a Nebraska State Trooper there with me calling in the funnel clouds to radio control. We started to get a bunch of lightning and some high winds - jogging both of our vehicles to the point that they nearly tipped over. We were trapped by too much wind and near zero visibility due to the rain. It slacked off a bit after a minute.

A couple of shots of the funnel clouds are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/trebor171/StormChaseIowa#5223468033883291298


Then the bolts got closer. I got busy unplugging my laptop from the power inverter and disconnected my external cell phone antenna. I had just looked up and -wham/slam- a bolt struck no more than five yards away from my Honda - just right in front of me. It was deafening and I saw black for about three seconds. I looked over to the Trooper, and at this time his eyes were bugging out of his head and his jaw rammed to his chest.
He rolled down his window for a moment and said "It can't get any closer than that!!".
I said "Oh - yes it can!"

It was as close as I have ever been to lightning - and I never want to get that close again unless I am in a car. I seriously questioned -and still do- the notion/need of having an external cell phone antenna after that.
I'm still trying to get the stains out...
 
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my closest was June 11th, 2008 in northwest IA. the storm was producing a ridiculous amount of intense CG's just in front of the storm, a lot of them hitting with 1/2 mile of us and maybe even closer.
 
Incredible stories, I love these threads that work to bring our collective interest together. My closest recalled strike was in September 2000 shortly after starting the hotel night job I am still at. I was outside smoking a cigarette* under the awning with a friend during a heavy storm and looking out when a bolt connected with the gutter. Accompanied by sparks, it arced to the ground via the downspout wall mounts. Sonic boom was instant causing me to involuntarily recoil. It was three stories up at a distance of about 18 feet. Fortunately I was on concrete but unfortunately, the strike not only set off the inside fire alarm but also caused the front door to lock! With all hell breaking loose, my friend and I wondered how we were going to get in. About a minute or two later, a curious guest came to the desk, saw us and opened the door. We then spent the rest of the time making sure there was no fire as well as calming pissed off guests. Turned out the strike not only canvassed down the front of the building but also through the interior wiring. It fried the front door key card lock mechanism as well as the telephone server thus effectively neutralizing communication for the entire property. Made for a very long night to say the least. What I found to be interesting is how at extremely close range, a lightning bolt is actually very thin. I am guessing it has to do with light refracting through airborne water molecules which creates more distortion or "width" with distance?

A secondary close call that I wish I understood better happened back on July 22, 2008. I was home and outside under our building awning during a heavy storm when a strike occurred very close. Again I instantly involuntarily recoiled (flinched?) but didn't see the actual strike. What I remember most was feeling a change in pressure like a shockwave and experiencing a painful headache.

Finally, back on June 3, 2008, I have no idea the distance as it was in my blind spot to the left but the back of the windshield caught the reflection well enough to show the closeness. Warning, I sound like a dork lol.

WMV 5.05MB
http://pawleewurx.com/st/close_call.wmv

*smoke free since 04 after 15 years, it is possible and easy!
 
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My first close encounter was back in about 1990 or so. I was picking my young one up from a visit to a cousin's house. It had been storming a bit on the way there, but nothing severe. I had parked on top of a hill under a telephone pole (not a lot of parking options :rolleyes:). My son had gotten into the car, and I was about halfway into the car when the hair on my arms and neck began to stand up. Needless to say I quickly got in the car and closed the door, when a bolt from the blue nailed the pole (the storm had been "over" for about half an hour, but it apparently wasn't totally over :p). Distance from me to the bolt... < 50 feet :eek:
I've had a "few" other close encounters since then...one of the best ones was in SE KS, June 4, 2005. We (Jo, Shane, Chad, and Mickey and I) were repositioning on one of those back roads and CGs were rather prevalent. The guys were in Chad's car and Jo and I were in my car. Suddenly there was a loud explosion, I could feel the heat coming in through the window, and my hands and arms were tingling from where I was holding the steering wheel. We didn't even see the bolt until we reviewed the tape later that night :eek:
 
My first time I was 13 I was in the front of my house when lightning struck 5 feet from me . Scared the sh out of me . Then in the first of June 07 my chase car was struck at night , in no man's land of Loco , Oklahoma.
 
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