Share your closest lightning strike.

In My Humble Opinion
1

Last night, there was a fierce thunderstorm at our house. Impressive wind, a little hail, four brief power interuptions, and plenty of thunder-boomies.

While I was watching out the window, lightning struck a pine tree about 30 feet away, creating a shower of big orange sparks! It made a loud sound more like a ZOT! than a crack or a zap or a boom.

I love watching lightning, and I’ve never seen it strike so close, and, after all, we were in the safety and comfort of our living room so I thought this was pretty cool. My husband was a little freaked out by it, and thought I was weird for enjoying the event.

So, what is the closest to you that lightning has every struck ?

2

I was 15 years old, and my godfather built a building at the State Fair grounds as a display for tractors, plows, combines, etc. In order to keep costs down, he hired my dad and I to help roof, side and paint the building.

We hired a dumpster to put the scraps in. To minimize the damage to the concrete and grass just prior to the opening of the fair, he had it placed about 50 feet away under a huge oak tree.

Fast forward several days. We’re siding the building, and the weather is grey, and sprinkling. Thunder and lightning have been rumbling for several hours, but not really near to us, so we were continuing to work, just not on the aluminium ladders. There are a few people wandering around, because the fair is open, but not many.

We cut a section of siding, and I walked to the dumpster and threw it in. Walked back to the building (50’ away), and grabbed the next pile when KAZAAM, the tree above the dumpster was struck.

The lightning ran down the tree, jumped to the dumpster, and arced to a puddle where a couple were walking.

I’d been gone for less than 30 seconds, as was just about to walk back with another load when this happened.

An EMT was on hand within seconds. the ambulance was there within a minute, and the couple were loaded and rushed to ER within 2 minutes. It was amazing how fast help was there and working

Unfortunately, the lady was killed. The lightning arced from the dumpster, through her, to the puddle she was walking through.

We quit working until the storm passed.

3

I started a thread a couple of months back about driving home and having a bolt hit about 75 feet in front of me with a tremendous, high-energy “CRACK!”

About a month ago, I was standing on my back porch when a bolt hit a tree across the street. It must have been twenty minutes bufore I flushed all the adrenaline out of my system and my heart rete returned to normal.

Then just two weeks ago I was talking to my wife and looking out my fron door at the wind bending the pine trees during a storm when “ZOOOTBAAAAM!”, this bolt hit’s the neighbor’s tree I was looking at. Like Podkayne described there was a huge shower of sparks, I instantly flinched backward and my wife, looking at me at the time, said my whole front just lit up in a blinding shade of white.

They keep getting closer… I’m about to get toasted… y’all, it’s been nice.

4

About a month ago, halfway through a FOUR HOUR WAIT on the runway at Bush Intercontinental in Houston, a lightning bolt struck not far off the runway. The captain came on and said, “Whoa, that was a close one, folks!” :eek: Not really something you want to hear from your pilot.

5

About ten years ago I was walking past a big ol’ power station on Lougheed near Boundary Road.

Lightning hit a transformer tower about 25’ away from me. It exploded spectacularly. I got hit with a tiny bit of debris. It was freaking cool.

6

I don’t know where my closest lightning strike hit. It passed maybe 10-15 feet over my head as I was standing outside my house watching the incoming storm. It hit close enough to screw up the colors on our TV, though; I just don’t know where. It freaked me out for about five seconds; afterwards, I just thought it was cool.

7

hm, 1970 or 71, grandparents summerhouse in Canada. Second storey [ground floor was a 2 slip boathouse and workshop] had picture windows on 3 quarters of the walls [back wall towards road, and about 10 feet towards the water where the bathroom, kitchen and entry landing didnt have picture windows, the rest of the 40 foot x 40 foot building was well windowed. My brother and I were flaked out on the corner bed looking out and watching the lightning when it hit the corner of the roof over our window. Probably 10 feet away [?] Trashed the roof and started a small fire, broke the 2 windows bracketing the corner, lots of water and glass damage. My brother has a small glass scar on one palm where he put it up to shade his face and glass embedded into it. I got the piss scared out of me.

We both still like to watch storms=)

8

Working a small store-front theatre in Albuquerque one summer, we finished up an afternoon’s rehersal as a patented New Mexico summer electrical storm started building. I’m painting scenery, and the only other person there is a 12 year old girl who’s in the show. She goes outside to use the pay phone at the side of the building, and I’m listening to the rolling thunder excite the atmosphere. An incredibly huge BOOM literally shook the place. That was close, I thought. A minute later the girl comes back in walking slowly with a blank look on her face. I asked her if she was okay. She said yes, still with a very blank, stunned look on her face. I asked, are you sure? Then she broke down and ran over to me crying. I hugged her and calmed her down. The phone booth was next to, sort of attached to a power pole, and all she could say is that she saw this bright white light surround her. That’s when I heard the boom. I can only figure the lightning struck the pole and went down into the ground, surrounding the enclosed phone booth, which was grounded and protected her. Yowzers!!! So I got her back home to her folks, and I was her hero for the run of the show.

9

About 1975 We were working on a car in a friend’s garage. I was under the car, finishing up a transmission replacement, the engine supported by a chain hoist from the rafters. There was a serious thunderstorm raging outside, but we were comfortably dry inside so it was of no concern to us. Just as I was reaching up with the wrench to tighten a bolt the pine tree about ten feet from the building was hit. The garage itself was not directly hit but enough energy was picked up by the chain and car to produce a very bright and painful arc about 2 inches long from the car to the wrench, and similarly from my elbow to the cement floor. My wife (girl friend at that time) got the worst of it, she was leaning against the car and got a full body jolt. She was unable to move for what seemed like a minute or two (probably only a few seconds) and ached all over the next day. Being just dumb kids at the time we never gave a thought to seeking medical attention.

10

Oh, man. 1992. I was stationed in Panama with the US Air Force. Along with 5 friends I embark on a “death-defying” week. This entails jumping out of an airplane (with a parachute) in Panama, followed by a trip to Costa Rica where we would bungee jump off a bridge and go through some Class IV whitewater rapids.

We did the entire sequence, but Day One involved the parachuting. As is typical during the rainy season, thunderstorms roll in about 3 PM every day. I’m due to go up when the storms arrive. They move in so fast that everyone is stuck where they are - in my case sitting on the bare metal floor of a Cessna (no seats installed in the jump plane). About 15 feet to my left is the mat that people use to repack their chutes. The lightning keeps getting closer and I’m looking at the metal that my butt and feet are planted on, also noticing the water that has collected on the floor from the non-weatherproof door. Just as I get about as nervous as I ever do, a bolt of lighting hits the re-packing mat next to me. I FEEL this flash that occurs simultaneously with a tremendously loud CRAAAAACK!!!

I jerk and look left to see the mat being picked up by the bolt of lightning. JEEEEBUS!!! The bolt hit in the middle of the mat and lifted it until the mat looked like a haphazard tent. The hair on my arms is standing on end and I’m trying desperately to keep my wet butt away from the metal floor as every bit of adrenaline I’ve ever produced gets dumped into my system. Fight or flight. Do I stay here or chance running across the open field which just took a hit? I see my buddies in their car and their eyes are as big as dinner plates. I reach for the door handle when CRAAAACK!!! - a parachute lying on the ground takes a bolt.

That’s it for me. Whatever this storm is doing, it involves an unusual attraction for nylon. I’m nylon-free (we ran into the plane to avoid the rain, before we put on our parachutes), but covered in wet cotton. I remain in the plane, doing my best to hover my butt the minimum distance above the floor required to avoid taking a shock in the keister if the plane gets hit. How far is that? I have no idea, but I can say that my legs were in agony and I did NOT take a shock to the keister that day! My saving grace was the same thing that got me in that position - the storm was fast moving, so it left the area quickly. The two bolts next to the airplane were the only close ones during it’s passing.

After all that, jumping out of an airplane was a RELIEF!!!

11

Which day?

I live near Tampa, FL, the lightning capital of the world. :eek:

12

My first thought when I saw the thread title was, “How often does lightning strike a closet?”

13

Or you’re are looking for lightning strike stories formerly kept in the closet for fear of what people will think.

I have two:

  1. Lightning hit a tree in the next yard about a hundred feet away while I was on the phone with my sister. She lived about 5 miles straight north of me, we were both looking out wondows facing south, and we both screamed at each other in the same moment. She said" That looked like it came down right on your head". I said almost.

  2. Lightning hit the chimney of my apartment building, I saw the bolt but not the strike as the roof angle prevented it. However, I did get hit by small debris particles that came over the roof. It was a tall brick rectangular chimney, and one corner of it was pretty much vaporized down the whole length, maybe 75 feet of brick pulverized and blasted away.

14

My closest was probably about 30-50 feet. I was putting the key in the lock of our door when there was this loud crack mixed with thunder. As I looked over, I watched the tree in the neighbour’s yard that had been hit break in half and fall …

… on top of my parents’ RV.

15

I was on the front porch of a house and lightning hit an electrical box about 100 feet away, destroyed it and the power lines on the street. It was cool watching it go up the lines. We were without electricity for about 24 hours.

While driving through an electrical storm, lightning hit the overhead power lines which came down about 20 feet in front of the car. The driver made a very fast swerve and avoided them.

16

I have two:

Circa 1985. I’m living in my parent’s ranch style house. My room is at the end of the hallway on the right. Outside my foom about 6 feet from the corner of the house is a huge maple tree. We had a thunderstorm come through. I was trying to sleep in my room at the time when I heard this incredibly loud crack of thunder. I could tell it was very close, but I didn’t find out how close until the next morning. My parents made me get up and look at the maple tree… it was missing a huge long strip of bark where the lightening hit. There were splinters of wood all over the yard.

Just 2 weeks ago we had a massive thunder storm come in. I had to wake up my kids because there was a tornado warning in the area, so we were all in the basement watching the weather report. Suddenly we hear this really loud crack of thrunder and the power goes out for about 10 seconds. My kids start to freak but then the power came back on. The storm passes and the warning was lifted so I put them all back to bed and then go to make a phone call. The following goes through my mind:

“The light on the phone is flashing… but that’s normal when we lose power for a bit. Hmmmm… interesting… the handset on my phone feels kind of warm. Phone feels kind of warm too. Oh great! There’s no dial tone. Better check the other phone… ah hell! That one isn’t working either.”

It turns out that the lightening struck our large pine tree that sits about 7 feet away from our house. Upon examining the tree further, you can see a nice strip of missing bark that spirals twice down the trunk of the tree. Quite amazing actually. The bolt fried my kitchen telephone, the telephone line coming to the house, the subwoofer on my computer system, and the sensors on my garage door opener.

17

Three weeks ago I was at an interview with a prospective client when the building right next to us got struck by lightning. We all stood at the window and watched the sparks fly off, then the building began to smoke. It was so cool. :smiley:

18

Circa 1997, I was in a thunderstorm while waiting for a bus. Lightning and thunder was all around but I didn’t really think anything of it, until I hear this ZOTBAM! That’s when I decided I’d be safer moving 20 feet to where the nearest building completely overhangs the street. I figure lightning struck the top of that 15 story building.

19

We were out fishing at night and it started to storm. So we went and sat in the car. Lightning hit a tree about 10 feet away. It car was shaking and it lit up the inside of the car like 100 flash bulbs going off. We decided to go home about 10 milliseconds later. :smiley:

20

I was in my kitchen feeding my kids lunch. We were all seated around the table (my wife was out). I don’t know where the lightning actually struck, but there was deafening CRACK. Simultaneously, the lightbulb in the celing fan exploded (thankfully, contained by the shade/bowl/thing) and the motor itself popped and emitted a large puff of smoke.

Needless to say, the kids were somewhat traumatized. Fortunately, the house didn’t burn down or anything. But it was quite the shock (er - no pun intended)!!