Too close for comfort....

[Gaetan Cormier]

August 12th we had a good chase in the Joliette area here in Quebec.

In the past while chasing I had fairly close lightning strikes landing near me less than 100 meters, but on that night of August 12th I had a lightning strike touch down at no more than 20 meters from me! Wow, it struck a tree that I was passing by... pretty freaky!

A chaser friend of mine was following me and captured the event on video, here's the frame grab (sorry for the low quality I enlarged the image)

It made me think about something.. during that strike I was at risk... I have a CB antenna on the roof (a mag mount) and during the strike I had the CB microphone in my hand... I started thinking that if the bolt would of hit my antenna, I would of probably took the hit I think that I'm goign to think twice about using the CB in an active storm

here's the video if your interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOxTsueVC8Y

Enjoy!

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

That's nuts...and the lightning activity appeared rather infrequent too.

 

[MClarkson]

That is an awesome picture...

 

[David Drummond]

I swear... I wasn't anywhere nearby!

 

[cedwards]

I swear... I wasn't anywhere nearby!

Obviously. If you were there, it wouldn't have hit the tree.

 

[David Drummond]

Obviously. If you were there, it wouldn't have hit the tree.

Maybe I should do a service to my fellow chasers and actually place a lightning rod on top of the chase vehicle to channel it away from the rest of you guys in a convergence!

That shot Gaeton got right there is why I have burned many hours of tape when driving around storms, in hopes of getting one just like that.

 

[Willie Dines]

Guys, when watching the video, after you see the lightning strike, click on the playback marker and slide it back, to the frame where you see the strike itself, like in the picture that Geatan posted, but then scroll it back slightly further, and you'll there there were possibly at least 2 strikes, the only way that you could really be sure though, is if someone could run the video through Windows Movie Maker and look through that particular portion of the video, frame by frame, and you should be able to get all individual lightning strikes that occurred in that short time

Lol, I'm sorry, I know it's not funny, but I couldn't help laughing at your first reply, Dave lol

I know what you mean though, to get an image, of such a close strike, without getting walloped in the process, is really something else, but I would be the same way Dave, I would prefer to keep the camera rolling, because usually when you don't expect to get anything, you wind up getting something very worth while on camera

Willie

Note to self - Don't try to type, untill you can finally stop laughing

 

[Gaetan Cormier]

I swear... I wasn't anywhere nearby!

Hahahaha! Good one David!

Maybe I'm becoming like you a little bit... in my last 2 chases (August 3rd and 12th) lightning landed 3 times somewhat very close to me. On August 3rd lightning stroke a Hydro-Quebec pole that was no more than 50 feet from me. On that same night we were driving in very hazardous condition so I decided to take a left in a drive way to stay safe out of the road. When taking the left turn all I saw in my mirror is a blueish blast followed by falling burning debris. that transformer that blew was at about 30 to 40 feet from me.

 

[Angie Norris]

Gaetan, that reminds me of 6-4-05 in KS (the day of the infamous turkey attack). Had a strike very close to my car while we were repositioning (had the tingly hands from just holding the steering wheel). David wasn't close by on that one, either .
Good vid!!

 

[Gaetan Cormier]

I just tought about this, this morning, I will try in the next couple of days to go back there and take a picture of the tree that got struck.

 

[Willie Dines]

There would actually be a good advantage of chasing along side Dave, you would have a much better chance of getting lightning strikes at closer range, as reguards getting good lightning footage/pics

I did have 1 close strike, when I was at Cardiff Central bus station, in Cardiff, Wales, there was quite a strong thunderstorm, possibly a LT (Low Topped) supercell, and I had litterally just got off the bus and into the shelter, about to cross the bus yard, when a lightning strike, waked the 80ft lamp post at the entrance to the bus yard, which was about 40ft from me, but of course, me being me, I was loving it and hoping for more

Willie

 

[Brian Stertz]

Wow incredible Gaeten...how was the thunder with that strike or series of strikes? The tree looks like it should be scorched down into the root system on a full body lightning strike like that one. Curious as to what type of tree that one was.

 

[Gaetan Cormier]

Wow incredible Gaeten...how was the thunder with that strike or series of strikes? The tree looks like it should be scorched down into the root system on a full body lightning strike like that one. Curious as to what type of tree that one was.

As far as I can remember, it was one loud bang! I'm going there right after work today to take photos. Hopefully they didn't chop the tree down and knowing the area it's probably a maple tree.

When we left the area, I remember seing wood fragments on the road... so some chuncks came off of it for sure.

 

[Willie Dines]

I can verify that were was some debris shown from the tree during the lightning strike, as far as I could tell by the video, it looked to be a negatively charged bolt, but I'm not 100% on that

Willie

 

[Pierre-Marc Doucet]

Hi everyone !

I'm the lucky guy who film this nice shot hehe. It was surely the closest lightning strike I saw in 3 years of chasing. Fortunately for Gaetan, the lighthning didn't stike is CB antenna ! Another shot was very close of us on August 3rd but we didn't capture it.

I hope for other good storm's by the end of August 'cause the chasing season is near the end for us !