The Closest You Personally Have Been to Lightning

[Laura Duchesne]

A few years back I was standing on the porch watching a storm. Then out of nowhere, a big CG struck the backyard of a house that was across the street from me, about 2 houses up. The thunder was a very loud booming crack basically right at the time the bolt hit... which scared the crap out of me. You could only imagine what came out of my mouth then lol. Then I saw a puff of smoke afterwards. The bolt appeared to be bead lightning. I wish I had footage but I am glad that house didn't burn down.

 

[jeremy wilson]

Lightning scares the crap outta me. I'm not that afraid of being in a circulation(I'm even kinda look forward to it) but when the cg's are bombarding me, such as the mulvane storm, I'm ducking and covering.

Standing just west of Marietta,Ok. in a gas station parking lot watching a awesome meso when it hit the power pole about 20 feet from me. Sparks went flying and so did my feet!I thought I had been hit and so did Aaron,my chase partner.That one actualy hurt! Also had a cg hit a wheat feild right beside me setting a huge blaze on May
29th, '04.

When lightning hits that close it never makes the classic kaboom sound, I always hear a sizzle and then nothing, just a bright flash and my ears are ringing. Do you other lightning rods experience the same phenomena or is it just me?

 

[Chris Kennedy]

I dont here sizzling but in my video there is a noise produced by the lightning. Wait till the end theres a slow motion scene and notice the "pop" made after the strike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh5_6J9eo10

 

[Karen Burdick]

I've had several close calls with lightning.

Just over a year ago or so, I was driving back to Denver, and I was very near Watkins at the time. I had just passed through some very intense rain, when the lightning suddenly really picked up. I was enjoying watching it, when it hit one of those little reflector poles on the side of the road. Timing was incredible as I was driving close to 65 miles and hour and was right next to the pole at the time. To this day I am not entirely sure that it didn't also hit my car. At any rate it popped my ears, gave me a slight headache, and deafened me for several minutes. Scared me enough that I was shaking for quite a while. Shortly after that it struck the field just to my south as well. That didn't help the headache, but that was some of the most beautiful lightning I have ever seen.

Another close call occurred back in high school. I was up in Estes park walking across this huge field in front of the lodge at the YMCA. I had finally managed to convince my friends that a game of miniature golf was not the wisest idea considering the approaching storm. As we walked toward the building I looked over at my friends and realized their hair was standing on end, as was my own. The air around us was also starting to get almost crackly and I could sense almost a feeling of static electricity in the air. At that point, one of my other friends noticed it as well, and we both screamed "run". We made it to the building without lightning striking, but that was a little too close for my comfort.

A few years back on my birthday, I was about to walk outside when I saw a flash and excruciatingly loud thunder. Loud enough to make several friends actually scream. Lightning had struck a metal pole in the back yard of the neighbors right to our west.

Finally, I remember sitting in my house reading. I glanced out the window, but the sky was completely blue all the way around the house. Suddenly, there was a loud clap of thunder...louder then anything I had heard up until that point, that actually knocked a few things off the wall. To this day, I have no idea where the lightning struck, but when I looked out the window, there was this little storm directly above the house. It was the only storm, actually cloud for that matter in the sky at that point.

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

I dont here sizzling but in my video there is a noise produced by the lightning. Wait till the end theres a slow motion scene and notice the "pop" made after the strike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh5_6J9eo10

Well, from my close three encounters this year, I would have to say that they all sounded as loud as a cannon shot. Maybe others had different experiences due to acoustic shadows created by the landscape.
I can't say.
My experiences were bone-jarring.
Really...

 

[Chris Kennedy]

Yeh I thought that this strike was alot farther off, then what it showed on the camera.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Nice CG. If one wanted you could figure out about exactly how far away it was by counting the video frames between flash and boom. Sound travels about a mile in 5 seconds. 30 frames per second video. And of course you can get a better number for speed of sound if you want.

 

[Jason Foster]

You know your really close when you don't even hear a typical boom...because your well within the area where the initial air displacement is...which is the "boom" sound.

I've seen this on many videos both on youtube, and on television/cable. There are noises, but it usually is the reaction of the material being struck...like bark being splintered of the tree being struck. I think the most evident showcase of both this and the dangers of lightning is the shot taken from South America (Brazil I think) during a soccer game. You see little flash, and little burn mark on the field...but you know what happens, because any player within 50-70 yards just drops to the field....in the middle of a soccer match (football for those international guys).

 

[Benjamin Rock]

I've had the car hit seven times over the last 16 years. the most recent was earlier this year when out spotting. I was heading for some cover and BANG!! the whole car died and everything shorted out. I carry extra wire and connectors in the car so i can do a quick fix and get the car going again. It gets expensive...

 

[Bill Tabor]

Certainly closer than I prefer. I think lightning is one of the larger, least worried about dangers of chasing. The problem with lightning is you can be hit before you are even aware of the possibility. There was a guy on top of Pikes Peak a number of years ago that was hit and killed by the first and only bolt generated by a nearby shower - completely unexpected. I've seen some incredibly intense lightning displays over the years. They are amazing to watch. It is incredible the amount of potential violence and power in each stroke. On the evening of the Mulvane tornado (what was it 2004?) I was driving behind the guy that later got struck and injured by lightning. That was a really spectacular and intense lightning show. I felt as I was driving toward the meso that I was going into a war zone with bolts showering down around. I was definitely concerned that day about the possibility of a strike, and was trying to 'keep my head down'. I did not want to get out of the vehicle while it was in progress.

 

[Chip Redmond]

Lightning is the main reason I developed a interest in meteorology. I was in kindergarden and my dad was taking me to school one day. I was staring out the window at a field that is close to my house. The only tree in that field was about 100 feet away and I watched it as it got nailed. I had never seen anything like that before and was amazed.
Ever since I seem to get a big head and don't think when there is lightning around unless there are others around. I have had many close calls since, most because I'm dumb, but heck, I will go when my time comes.

Chip

 

[Dennis Dennison]

There was a very large dust storm rolling into Phoenix, I had figured it was moving north at 60-70 mph, I went inside my house when it blew it. Winds were as I had figured. after the main dust cloud went psat there was a very strong downbust, the wind was more intense, I figure them to have been 100-120 mph. I had a pair os silver crosess from my parents funerals havging on the wall, they began to glow with St.Elmo. Water was being blown through the drain slits in the aluminum windows, I noticed so much water was coming in, the carpet we wet, I stood next to the window, in the water, and looked thru the aluminum blinds to see what I could see. Just then I saw a huge light off to my left and felt the electicity hit me--I woke up after a few minites laying on the carpet, my arm and right side and legs were tingling, I was breathing fast and shallow---so I assume A bolt hit just to the right side of the front of the house and some of the current came in with the waterflow/wet carpet/hands on aluminum binds to knock me on my butt and stun me a little.So how close was I? Close enogh to get juiced

 

[Laura Hedien]

I was hit when I was touching the chase van. It wasn't the main part of the bolt- otherwise I wouldn't be here today...
This was May 2, 2008 near Earle Arkansas when we chasing an EF 3.
Laura

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=043IdzQqk_s

 

[Alan Broerse]

There has been a few close calls (40) feet or closer.....one was the front yard while watching an advancing charged cell......bolts hit about every 20 seconds in a line starting 1 mile out and moved in towards me. The last one I remember hit a telephone pole 40 feet away and splintered the top couple feet...smoking. The flash and report were one of the same and deafening.......last year while standing about 100 yards from our TV station transmission tower. I was watching the static electricity runners going down the guy lines...popping. The static build up on the 1500 ft tower was immense. At once I observed a bolt come from a rain shaft area of the storm about 3 miles away. It arched the 3 miles almost horizontally passing 3 othe r towers and struck the tip of our tower showering sparks for a few hundred feet. The bolt was white and the sparks were green. The weird thing about tall tower strikes is their report (crack) is not the same...or as loud as a ground strike. Guess the lightning path is a lot shorter.....Its pretty cool and happens several times a year.

 

[Richard Dickson]

I’ve pointed out with some pride in other posts that I have been an electrical lineman for most of my career with two electrical utilities. In the summer of 1971, another lineman and I were called out during a storm for some customers being out of power south of Augusta, Kansas. When my partner and I got to the area, we found a pole that had been hit by lightning with the top five feet of it split out. This had allowed the cross-arm to become detached from the pole and the phases were wrapped together.

We decided that we could make temporary repairs by drilling a hole in the pole and reattaching the cross-arm in a lower position for the night and then get the pole replaced the next day. This was in the days before bucket trucks were common, so we both climbed the pole and made the temporary repairs while the storm was quite active around us. Customers were without power and this is what we were paid to do in life.

When we were finished, Jack climbed down first. As soon as he was on the ground, I climbed down also. I had taken about five steps towards the truck to put my tools away when lightning hit the pole again that we had just came down from. The bolt splintered the pole to pieces showering both of us with debris. I’ve thought a lot over the years about how different the situation would have been if we had been just two minutes slower in our work.