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

Hi,

Not quite sure what this thread is about as the title appears to be somewhat misleading.

Loads of people are hit by lightning every year - here is an extract from physics.org

You have to be quite unlucky to be killed by lightning – only about 10% of the people hit each year die – but being struck by lightning is a far from pleasant experience as Roy Sullivan can attest. A park ranger, he was struck seven times between 1942 and 1977 and suffered a range of disabling injuries. Lightning strikes can blow your clothes and shoes off as the moisture on your skin rapidly boils and turns to steam. Any objects touching your skin will cause serious burns and you also risk hearing loss, seizures, headaches and blindness.

But you were in an insulated car!

Like t previous poster I have experienced lightning followed by an almost instantaneous peel of thunder (the strike was close) and if anything it was the thunder that affected me for some time. (Decades probably!)

Peace!

Originally posted by The Endtime Warrior
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.

And man...to that I would say that your point is well made I myself have MANY Discovery Channel/History Channel shows...i'm talkin COUNTLESS HOURS under my belt, and with that said I totally understand your logic as I too have heard the same thing before. But for the life of me...I don't know what to say as to why the lack of thunder noise :-/

And what REALLY BAFFLES ME is the lack of the thunder noise WHEN THE SH1T IS OCCURRING LIKE 2 FEET AWAY FROM YOU?!?! Of course not saying that was a BAD THING in this particular instance lol. Man...that would have been one hell of a thing to luck out by dodging the lightening ONLY TO HAVE THE THUNDER TO GO AHEAD AND TAKE OUT YOUR EARDRUMS ALONG WITH THE WINDSHIELD buwhahaha. Talk about a double whammy that's up close and personal holy crap man that would of sucked! lol

But yea back on topic...I guess I know what I will be researching a little when the moment....ready? STRIKES ME to conduct research buwhahaha sorry couldn't resist ;-) Thanks for the replies all

Originally posted by DOADOA

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?

Well...if it were to hit the car...and I so happen to be in said car...I mean technically I think I qualify for the bragging rights to be able to actually claim that YES I indeed DID get hit by lightening, and am apparently so bad ass that...pfft...did nothing...nada...jack...right here alive to tell the tale? What? No? Hey...someone throw me a marsh mellow here...that qualifies yea?

So...not sure what the problem is? ;-)

(for the record man...I hope that you are taken NONE of that serious right? lol)


NOW ON A MUCH MORE SERIOUS SIDE NOTE....I do seem to be statically shocking pretty much EVERYTHING that I touch. Have been ever since getting home hours ago....ever since my...possible mutation began

In fact if my calculations are correct...at this rate of static amplification I figure by 7:47PM tomorrow I may very well be able to take out and neutralize a Bounty cloth dryer sheet It will stand NO CHANCE against my powers. NONE! And from then on...I figure that I will be required to go into deep hiding as Johnson and Johnson will surely throw every thing they got at me...it won't be easy but...it is the price that one should expect to pay when given a gift as AWESOME as what I had been touched tonight by.

;-)

Originally posted by The Wave
Hi,

Not quite sure what this thread is about as the title appears to be somewhat misleading.

Loads of people are hit by lightning every year - here is an extract from physics.org

You have to be quite unlucky to be killed by lightning – only about 10% of the people hit each year die – but being struck by lightning is a far from pleasant experience as Roy Sullivan can attest. A park ranger, he was struck seven times between 1942 and 1977 and suffered a range of disabling injuries. Lightning strikes can blow your clothes and shoes off as the moisture on your skin rapidly boils and turns to steam. Any objects touching your skin will cause serious burns and you also risk hearing loss, seizures, headaches and blindness.

But you were in an insulated car!

Like t previous poster I have experienced lightning followed by an almost instantaneous peel of thunder (the strike was close) and if anything it was the thunder that affected me for some time. (Decades probably!)

Peace!

Right on....but did it give you superpowers? Didn't think so. Thanks for replying ;-)

:-p

Have to agree with the others when they say 'you' were not hit by lightening, as the title of the thread suggests, I'd put an 'almost' in the title.

Aside from that though....WOW....that was close...really close. Glad you're still here to tell the tale. To me that looked just metres away and not many people get to see it as close as that.

Very cool video and a fine example of how fast lightning can travel.

In the late 90's me and a friend were fishing at a lake at Busch Wildlife in Missouri. The lake had just recently reopened after MO conservation had drained it and dug it out it had been closed for a few years. We were parked on a gravel road and we were fishing on the lakes levy. There were thunderstorms around and the fish were biting like mad and we were quickly filling our stringers with very nice catfish. A van pulled up and to our surprise a guy in a wheel chair got out and proceeded to fish, he was by himself.

Around 15 minutes later it started poring we had all our stuff packed and ready to bolt and we did as soon as it started to rain, pausing to see if the guy needed any help. He said he was fine so we jumped into the truck.

Since it was a newly opened lake there wasn't much grass growing near the dirt road, conservation completely rebuilt this lake and the surroundings but they didn't lay sod. Anyway the bank the guy was trying to navigate quickly turn to all mud and he was having problems with the last few yards.

We were soaked anyway so we jumped back out and ran towards him. He was looking at us and I assumed he was gonna refuse any help but at that moment Everything around us went completely White and there was this hissing/boiling noise all around us!!!!!!!!!! Everyone knew what this was and we reached the dude and helped him into the van while the strikes continued over our heads our hairs where standing on end and our hearts were pounding we were soaked as the ground around us was also any strike hitting anywhere on the ground near us most likely would have killed us all We heard at least 2 trees exploding in the woods on the other side of the road......!!!!!!!! anyway he was safe and we made it back to the truck and Did Not Move for the longest time.

We have never been so scared in our lives.....Im sure the looks on out faces while we were running/helping was of shear terror....

We all got out a while after the storm past and talked we all agreed that there were at least 7 total near misses in around a minute or less in time. we were only 15 - 20 yards total to and from the other guy and his van.

5 while we were out in it.

I know how you feel OP terrified but Righteous at the same time!!!!!

Wow, really a lot of people don't like to read threads before posting eh?

Again, electricity flows around the outside of a hollow conductor, which means if you are on the inside, you don't get shocked. Nothing lucky about it - simple physics

[edit on 18/7/10 by RogerT]

I don't know why some people are acting like it's not a big deal, it's not everyday you record a lightning strike right in front of you. I probably watched it about a dozen times, it got to the point where I had to laugh every time your "wooh (pause) wow" came up. Cool vid, I'd be excited too.

I wished I had a vid of my wife last sunday(7-11) when she was struck.
At first it scared the living crap out of me but when I saw she was fine and checked out the rest of the house and fix the tripped breakers. I told her how she acted at the time and I laughed a little bit well to make a long story short I got an ear full and slept on the couch.

Originally posted by Newbomb Turk
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...

You're right....the youtube frames really are terrible. Maybe you can post some decent frame grabs from the higher quality original of the closer lightning strike?

From the crappy youtube quality it looked like the first strike was maybe 10 miles away and the closer strike was maybe 1 mile away, not 10 feet away, but maybe some clearer frame grabs (screenshots) will show it closer than the youtube video seems to.

The lightning looked close so I'm glad to hear that you didn't feel anything. The metal frame of the car should protect you in a lightning storm just like passengers in an airplane don't get electrocuted every time lightning strikes a plane.

I myself have been temporarily blinded by lightning. Being blind even temporarily is a scary feeling. Lightning has on a number of occasions been so close to me or family members that the thunder has knocked things off of walls. I saw one lightning bolt strike less than 20 feet away from my brother one day while he was outside talking to someone. He ran inside the house rather fast afterwards. I thought it was real funny. I'm not sure why I happened to be watching but I was expecting it to storm any minute. The lightning bolt struck about 20 feet away from him in between the space between two cars. I thought it was surprising it didn't strike trees or cars but just came straight down. I saw lightning strike someone's house one time.

I've also heard about some people having a problem with being consistently struck again and again after they are first struck by lightning. I suspect something with their body changes after being struck making them more attractive to the lightning.

reply to post by Newbomb Turk


I was "shocked" by lightening when I was 18. I saw it come down from the sky and it went thru a metal pole over my head from the awning on the front of the porch. It knocked me to the ground and out - a man across the street saw me on the walk and came over and did CPR. I survived - why because I was not "struck" - I was "shocked" by the lightening as you were. I had hair clasps in my hair and had burns on my head and headaches for years aftewards. Lightening scares me to this day and most likely always will. Glad you are alright, it is a frightening experience.

reply to post by crazydaisyIt's a good thing your neighbor gave you CPR.

That's quite plausible, lightning doesn't have to strike you to kill you. Lightning can give off an electromagnetic pulse capable of stopping the human heart.

There have been bodies of perfectly healthy young people found outdoors after electrical storms, with no apparent cause of death other than the heart stopping, and the most logical explanation that was developed for the deaths was nearby lightning strikes causing the heart to stop. There was no evidence that the lightning actually struck the people it killed, just coming close may be enough to stop your heart.

Here is one report where the electromagnetic field around the lightning is referred to as a "flash":

www.struckbylightning.org...

Charleston County EMS officials Tuesday said a teen reportedly struck by lightning during Monday evening's thunderstorms was not. EMS Director Don Lundy said he examined the teen last night after the incident and found no evidence of a lightning strike. According to Lundy, a lightning strike has a definite entrance and exit wound and the area around the strike is burned. The teen had none of those characteristic marks, he said. Instead, what the teen experienced was likely the effects of a "flash." Lundy said a flash happens when a person is near an electrical current, but not actually hit with it. The proximity to the current can result in anything from tingling to actually knocking a person off his feet, he said. Other Charleston-based news agencies have talked to the teen who says the lightning traveled down the chimney and came in through the fireplace before striking him in the thigh. After the flash, the teen reported having a tingling sensation in his leg. Lundy said there were no burns or damage around the home and the tingling sensation the teen reported is consistent with a flash

I guess if a tingling sensation is all you get, you're lucky, it can be worse.

OP, I'm glad to hear you are OK. You are lucky you where in your car at the time. The metal shell provided a faraday cage.

The rubber tires do, at most, next to nothing to help you. The tires will increase the resistance of the electrical current from the air to the ground. That means that at any given time, your car is slightly less likely to be struck than if you had metal wheels, or a wire that drags from your car to prevent static shock. (The wire is fairly common in dry climates.)

That video of yours is amazing to watch. That lightning sure does look very close to your car. The lack of immediate thunder, though, makes me wonder. It was stated by a previous poster as thunder being the rapid expansion and contraction of the atmospheric gases as the cause of thunder. I know that as fact as the cause of thunder. Though, as you have stated, you have no idea why there was not immediate thunder, and I accept your first person account of what happened.


On a more personal note. My great great grandfather died as a result of a lightning strike. I need to add general location to this story for relevancy. The family farm is in the foothills of America's mountains, where T storms can pop up with little warning. The story of his death starts with a quick moving summer storm moving in on the days right after a hay harvest. As he and his son's where in the house eating lunch, a heavy looking storm started moving in. It was noticed and he goes into the, quite hilly, fields to pull this hay wagon down, from the top of the hill, to the barn, out of the rain. It gets pretty fuzzy from here as he was the only one AT the hay wagon at the time. Anyways as he is hooking up this hay wagon to pull it to the barn, lightning strikes, he gets hit by it. It takes the family a few minutes to get to him, along with someone getting the Dr.. My great great grandfather was not able to be saved. He passed on.

I don't really have much of an ending for that story. He died from a lighting strike in an open field on a hill. I watched that barn burn down 15 years ago. it was around 130 years old.


I'm glad your safe. I hope you learned at a minimum to not get in a dangerous position, in a lighting storm. Even though it is still fun to watch.

Originally posted by polarwarrior
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]

Because lightning doesn't make noise, dude. What is normally heard is the subsequent crash of thunder after the lightning strikes and if you replay the video, you can actually hear the thunder shortly after the bolt hits.

For the OP - damn dude. That was a close one indeed. There was a fairly intense storm here a couple of days ago and a giant bolt struck the ground about 150 feet or so from my truck. Crazy stuff.

If your car was hit be careful.

I was driving a truck years ago that was hit.
Within three days i had two tires blow out from the unseen damage done by the lightening.

The tale that tires act as insulators was from the days before steel belted tires.

lightening is very high voltages and steel belted tires only have about 3/4 inch if rubber on the face and bead.

lightening strikes on cars can also cause wheel bearing damage like done by improper welding on cars. because the arc has to travel across the bearing to go from the frame to tires then ground.

Originally posted by mf_luder
What is normally heard is the subsequent crash of thunder after the lightning strikes and if you replay the video, you can actually hear the thunder shortly after the bolt hits.

For the OP - damn dude. That was a close one indeed.

I CAN hear the thunder about 3 seconds after the lightning hits. Since the sound of the thunder travels about a kilometer in 3 seconds, that means the lightning strike was about a kilometer away, right? Sort of close, but not 10 feet away, though maybe it seems that close.

[edit on 19-7-2010 by Arbitrageur]

reply to post by Arbitrageur


The neighbor that gave me CPR was a firefighter. He was in the right place at the right time and needless to say became my hero!

reply to post by Newbomb Turk

And what REALLY BAFFLES ME is the lack of the thunder noise WHEN THE SH1T IS OCCURRING LIKE 2 FEET AWAY FROM YOU?!?!

To put it simply, it's impossible. You can't have fork lightning without thunder as far as I know. If you didn't hear the crack then you weren't close enough for the sound to reach you.

Originally posted by RMFX1
reply to post by Newbomb Turk

 

And what REALLY BAFFLES ME is the lack of the thunder noise WHEN THE SH1T IS OCCURRING LIKE 2 FEET AWAY FROM YOU?!?!

To put it simply, it's impossible. You can't have fork lightning without thunder as far as I know. If you didn't hear the crack then you weren't close enough for the sound to reach you.

***EDIT NOTE: The images are rather large. I tried sizing them down some and reposting, but still large. So please note that at the bottom of the image is a slider bar. You will need to slide each bar to the right in order to view the bolt of lightning. Thank you. ALSO I KNOW A COUPLE OF YOU MENTIONED IT BEING NICE IF YOU HAD THE SOURCE VIDEO to view the higher quality source. Post up an email addy and I will gladly provide you the video :-) Just if after watching it you feel that you could contribute further to the thread, then please do so. Thank you****

OMG to the next flippin rocket scientist in all his/her glorious wisdom deduces that "oh that's 10 miles away, you were not even close" or better yet "impossible no crack, not close enough" I mean DID YOU EVEN BOTHER TO FOLLOW THE ADVICE OF THOSE MEMBERS THAT POSTED IN THIS THREAD AND WATCH THE CLIP AGAIN OR?!?! Like how come the majority of people who posted had ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEM in seeing exactly what I SAID I SAW?

AND...if I weren't even close, then OH NOES I GUESS I SH1T MY PANTS FOR NOTHING, as well as spoke with God for the next 20 minutes after! lol Like....ugh never mind I think there is this percentage of people out there that NO MATTER if you got a freaking video clip smacked up on the screen ALONG WITH A 1ST HAND TESTIMONIAL (for which I would like to thank the poster on page 1 who at least constructed an INTELLIGENT post by saying that he had issues with the apparent lack of thunderclap HOWEVER HAD TO TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION A 1ST HAND WITNESS ACCOUNT, WHICH WAS THEREFORE GOOD ENOUGH FOR HIM! THANK YOU I can live with that as I TOO AM BAFFLED AS TO WHY I DIDN'T HEAR ANY THUNDER) but back to the percentage of people...there are those that NO MATTER what the MAJORITY SEE, THEY STILL HAVE TO GO AGAINST THE GRAIN IN ORDER TO...I DUNNO SOUND INTELLIGENT?!? Buwhahaha...come on guys you are acting like if you admit that yes I was as probably as close to a HUGE ASS lightning bolt as one would ever want to humanly as possible get close to without risking death.....that you would be risking giving me some unseen authority or power or something?!?! So in DEFINITELY NOT WANTING TO DO THAT...you reach into nothingness and throw some insignificant scientific fact (I say insignificant in this case because I have seen many posts so far stating fact that you CANNOT GET LIGHTNING WITHOUT THUNDER yet....I beg to differ and guess what? I GOT VIDEO PROOF TO PROVE IT!!)

Dude...lol...it's okay man you all ain't got to go against the grain in order to somehow deny me in what you may perceive my "moment of greatness" or something...wanna know why? BECAUSE I AM STILL SCARED SH1TLESS THINKING BACK TO SATURDAY AND HOPE TO GOD I NEVER EVER EVEN REMOTELY COME THAT CLOSE EVER AGAIN!! lol

BUT!!

Here ya go...here are a couple screen shots I snapped (pausing the video clip that was playing on my laptop but displayed on my 43' Plasma TV):

I won't post them all as if these do not prove enough that the BOLT HIT LITERALLY INCHES OR FEET AWAY FROM MY VERY CAR THAT I WAS SITTING IN SHOOTING THE VIDEO...so again if these pics aren't enough to prove to the naysayers whom are apparently hellbent on denying me....something I dunno, but they sure are hellbent about doing so! lol

Okay so this 1st one shows both the bolt as it 1st appeared possibly YES 10 MILES OUT OR SO as it had already traveled across the sky to my location...BUT EVEN THEN I WAS NOWHERE NEAR IT RIGHT?



Well this pic shows a lightning bolt SO CLOSE TO MY CAR I COULD HAVE LITERALLY REACHED OUT AND TOUCHED IT! HOWEVER, still wanna try and deny the fact that it was nowhere even close to me? Then I simply ask you to take a look at the 1st pic...most notably the area on the ground surrounding my car (again I am in the front drivers seat so you almost pretty much have as close to a drivers view as you're gonna get here), AND THEN LOOK AT THE 2ND PIC WHICH MUST HAVE BEEN THE MOMENT OF TOUCHDOWN LITERALLY INCHES FROM MY CAR!! LOOK AT THE GROUND NOW!



SO....STILL WANT TO HOLD ONTO YOUR SAME ARGUMENT THAT I WASN'T EVEN CLOSE! Buwhahaha


Star and Flag from those that denied originally please? ;-)

[edit on 19-7-2010 by Newbomb Turk]

[edit on 19-7-2010 by Newbomb Turk]