I was struck by lightening tonight and lived to tell the tale! VIDEO

***I just watched the youtube format as it is being presented and note that some of the quality has been lost most likely due to the differences in frame rates or something (meaning that the format my phone used is Quicktime 3GPP which appears to be in greater detail/ability to pause and scroll through each frame rate on a scale that is much better than it appears can be done on youtube....I DUNNO your results may vary I guess I should just say lol as others seem to be NOT having any problems in seeing that I came VERY CLOSE to God tonight.****


And was lucky enough to have been shooting video at the time and caught it on camera! So In my E46 BMW M3 driving back to Tucson, AZ from Yuma, AZ. I just merged onto the I-10E from the I-8E and began driving into an awesome lightening storm. We entered what is called "Monsoon Season" a few weeks ago so this is a pretty normal event this time a year. However, this will be my first in experiencing the monsoons in the Southwest USA as I only just recently relocated here for a job that I accepted. Anyways...I had been eagerly anticipating this years monsoons as I have always enjoyed thunder/lightening storms! I find them to be both an awesome and powerful display of mother nature, but yet peaceful to experience as an observer.

So I took out my phone and put it on camera/video mode and began shooting small 30 sec segments. Time was approximately 11:20PM on July 17, 2010 and I was about 50 miles outside Tucson, AZ. I was getting some okay clips but realized that trying to video while driving was not the best idea safety wise (even though I was shooting with the phone propped up on the steering wheel pointing straight ahead so I could pretty much blindly shoot while keeping my eyes and attention directly on the road/other motorists ahead), so I decided to pull off onto the shoulder.

So there I sit....waiting...got a couple cool shots but not what I had been hoping for. I then think to myself "Oh great! So I get the awesome display that is until I pull over, and then it stops!" lol. And then out of the silence in the black of night WHAM!!




The bolt seems to originate miles up ahead but TRAVELS across the sky until it flippin lands not 10 FEET FROM MY CAR!! Like if you pause and go frame by frame it appears to contact my right front fender!! You see the ground all around my car illuminate! And you can see the effect it had on my cell phone camera signal or something cuz it goes haywire!! Man...after my heart skipped a dozen beats I then hauled ass outta there and spent the next 30+ miles cleaning the crap outta my drawers!!

Oh and had a little talk with the Man upstairs as well. Don't think you could come much closer than that to a lightening strike and live to tell the tale. Even if you COULD, no thank you...I prefer to keep PLENTY of distance ;-) Just wanted to share. Thanks ;-)

Man now I can't go to sleep I am still freaked out as to how close that came. Now we have all heard the "the car is one of the safest places to be in the event of a lightening storm due to the tires acting as insulators" story...so let me ask you guys this...do you think that is what might have saved my ass tonight? I mean seriously...if you watched the video and feel that the strike came nowhere near me, then PLEASE PAUSE AND GO FRAME BY FRAME...you will see just how close it actually came to my car to the point of illuminating the very ground around my car and see bolts so close that you could literally reach out and grab if you wanted too :-O

So what ya'll think? Did my tires save me tonight? Man good thing I didn't decide to step out of the car to get better shot or something...cuz I have NO DOUBT that I would be a goner FER SURE :-/




[edit on 18-7-2010 by Newbomb Turk]

[edit on 18-7-2010 by Newbomb Turk]

Hey sounds exciting, glad your alright

Why cant I hear the lightning exept I can hear ya voice? Ive been very close to lightning and it was the loudest thing ive ever heard.

Btw, yeah your car wouldve saved ya alright, if you'd been that close standing on an open road it probs could have chosen you (the tallest most conductive object) to ground.

[edit on 18-7-2010 by polarwarrior]

The video is not what I expected. Not saying you are lying, I just assumed there would be more noise/evidence of it hitting your car or near your car. I have heard that lightening is some 10 times hotter than the sun. I wonder what physical damage it could do.

Cool vid!

Definitely not as awesome as it could have been, BUT,

still not too shabby.

Glad you made it out alive.

-Sol

I would have thought there would have been more of a bang.

I also didn't see where it hit your bumper, could you put up a screen shot of it?

dude....the lightning didn't hit you. if you pase the video at the right time, it's at least a mile away.

Lightning itself doesn't make noise, so there wouldn't necessarily be a sound involved in this.

Originally posted by Newbomb Turk
Oh and had a little talk with the Man upstairs as well.

Good idea.

Glad you're okay and thanks for posting this.


TheAssoc.

reply to post by Newbomb Turk


"I was struck by lightening tonight and lived to tell the tale!"



um, you know you are dead, right?

yes, we have ATS in hell, too.

Wow thats mad as , lucky to get that footage
Closest lightning strike I've seen was on the fence post outside my bedroom window on christmas day many moons ago as a young lad , I thought that was pretty brilliant at the time

Originally posted by DOADOA
dude....the lightning didn't hit you. if you pase the video at the right time, it's at least a mile away.

Again as I stated in my original post...pause it and go FRAME by FRAME to where it initially strikes, then the next frame it gets closer, and finally if you pause it right that sh1t is RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME and is illuminating every inch of ground around me. Can't help you after that except to say thanks for replying ;-)

Electricity travels around the outside of a hollow conductor (car) so as far as I'm aware, you are perfectly safe sitting in a car.

I've seen an old video of someone driving repeatedly underneath a 'lightning machine' and getting zapped over and over. No harm done to man or car.

That's also why no petrol explosion, as the tank is another hollow conductor.

I learned this in teenage physics class, so feel free to correct if wrong

Originally posted by Chadwickus
I would have thought there would have been more of a bang.

I also didn't see where it hit your bumper, could you put up a screen shot of it?

I thought the SAME thing...in fact a MAJORITY of the strikes that were occurring (and there were mad strikes going off all over the sky tonight) were NOT making the usual telltale thunderclap. Yes that has me very confused as well. But just like another poster said in this thread...there nothing that states that its a requirement to always get thunder as well.

I filmed another clip of an awesome strike tonight....no where near as close as this one lol but lemme load it up and post cuz if I recall it too made no noise. Now that I think about it...this was probably one of the quietest lightening storms I can recall experiencing.

Oh and as far as any damage...I didn't think to check actually. And I don't think it was the bumper area as the angle I am pointing the camera is about 45 degrees right center of say the dash. So passenger front fender would be more like it. I WILL go out 1st thing in the morning tho and see if I see anything. I mean...it was probably one of the freakest things I had ever encountered because if it DID strike my car (which it was more than enough close to do), I DIDN'T FEEL A THING. NADA. NOTHING. Could the insulators (tires) have smoothly and quietly routed that high power directly through the ground without the...extra added dramatic effects? Could it even be possible? Thanks

Gonna load up another cool vid from tonight....be right back ;-)

Originally posted by Newbomb Turk

Originally posted by Chadwickus
I would have thought there would have been more of a bang.

I also didn't see where it hit your bumper, could you put up a screen shot of it?

I thought the SAME thing...in fact a MAJORITY of the strikes that were occurring (and there were mad strikes going off all over the sky tonight) were NOT making the usual telltale thunderclap.

Thunder is apparently the sonic boom as the air rushes in at mach speeds to fill the gap/vacuum caused by the expanding air heated by the lightning - implosion.

I would imagine there would always be this sonic boom in the case of forked lightning but I'm sure the resident science dudes will clarify.

Originally posted by DOADOA
dude....the lightning didn't hit you. if you pase the video at the right time, it's at least a mile away.

Oh and another thing...lightening a MILE AWAY affected my camera to the extent that is shown in that clip? Yea okay. Like seriously guys...PPPLLEEAASSEE...I know this is like a conspiracy board and sh1t but man lol...I SWEAR this is not a photoshop fake made in my basement done with a laser pointer, a cigarette and mirrors or some crap lol okay? This is REAL RAW FOOTAGE that I PERSONALLY took with my Android phones movie camera tonight July 17, 2010. BELIEVE ME there is NO CONSPIRACY here lol. Doubt that is REALLY going to do much good but lol.

Okay loading up other video be right back ;-)

Edit: to say argh the other video wasn't as good as I had hoped/thought. What sucked was that there were so freaking many going off left and right it came down to trying to make sure I kept pointing in the right direction at the right time, and continuously press the record button...which I kept doing every 30 seconds at a time (I just chose 30 sec so that the files would remain small), so in addition to lucking out and catching some good ones...I would have over 80% of nothing happening. THEN I would begin to run out of storage on my SDRM card in my phone (even tho it is a 2GB card).

So driving, trying to shoot good vid by catching the good ones, running out of HD space which I would then open up the folder and begin deleting the majority that were me getting nothing cuz I wsan't pointed in the right direction at the right time....ugh long story short I HAD a few good ones, but in my hurried attempts at deleting to make room for others that had the potential of being KICK ASS, I deleted ones that were good and wished I woulda kept :-/

So that's it....but man am I glad I at least walked away with that one lol. Man I never wanna come that close again whew. Anyways...just wanted to share ;-) Oh and please do not look TOO HARD into the thread title...I consider it to be very accurate considering I was front and center experiencing it first hand, but yes I worded the thread title to be taken a little humorously also so lighten up ;-)

[edit on 18-7-2010 by Newbomb Turk]

That was pretty crazy. Glad your alright. You can tell, or well atleast I can, that the lightning appeared to travel and hit the top right of the car. Pretty Crazy.

[edit on 18-7-2010 by Oozii]

Incredible experience you had and video to prove it. I saw where it does hit right at the front of your right fender - consider yourself a very fortunate man!

Yep it hits right on your car.

Nice video, wow story!

Very impressive experience to share. Thanks!

I guess I should remember how lucky I am (and everyone) is to be alive.

Maybe it was actually the rubber of your tires that insulated you. Crazy stuff!

Awesome video! I've had a bolt of lightning this close to me twice before, while not in a car, and it is both amazing and terrifying at the same time. The first experience seemed to be in slow motion and took forever, even though it was definitely less than 2 seconds. The thunderclap was so loud I couldn't hear anything except my ears ringing for over an hour. As amazing as it was, I don't want to experience it again, there is just no way to steel yourself for the shock (no pun intended) on your senses to really enjoy the moment.

You're perfectly safe in your car so it was far from a lucky escape but it's very cool none-the-less. Cars get hit by lightning all the time though.

I used to live in South Africa and we had some wild lightning storms almost daily during the summer. I've seen a lot of close lightning strikes and not only should you heard the loud crack almost immediately, but often you can smell it aswell. It smells almost like sulphur.

Originally posted by Newbomb Turk

Originally posted by DOADOA
dude....the lightning didn't hit you. if you pase the video at the right time, it's at least a mile away.

Again as I stated in my original post...pause it and go FRAME by FRAME to where it initially strikes, then the next frame it gets closer, and finally if you pause it right that sh1t is RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME and is illuminating every inch of ground around me. Can't help you after that except to say thanks for replying ;-)

point is, it didn't hit YOU. it may be near but lightning did not strike you. you didn't survive or live to tell anything.

it would of been better if you were hit, got some super power from it and told us, that would of been worth mentioning but this?