personally about 10ft. hit a huge tree in my back yard and vaporised it, as i was coming out the back door. knocked me back inside, and i'm still saving money on stereo mods, because i can't hear for sh#t because of it. i was almost Mrbbq-ed-man or something.

 

Wow. Are you otherwise OK ?
Any damage to the house/cars ?

 

I was sitting in my office at home messing around with my computer. There's a medium size tree right in front of the window to my office. Big enough to provide shade, small enough to see around. It's probably 1 foot away from the window. Lightning hit the thing and killed it. Fortunately didn't hit the house or my computer

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2000 Black Lightning
#1326 of 4966
Born on 03/20/2000
PSP Chip
PSP Filter
Best time: 13.335 @ 103.91 mph

 

I was taking out the trash and standing 15 ft from a telephone pole with a street light. I saw the flash as it hit the light at the top of the pole. All my hair stood on end and I got extremely hot. Only a few second passed but seemed a lot longer, like everything was in slow motion. Other than the huge scare everything was ok with me but the light didn't fair well.

I always wondered if that was what caused me to get shocked every time I get out my cars/truck.

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1998 F-150 XLT 4X4 Supercab Flareside
Bright Red, Med Graphite 60/40 Int
4.6L V8, Auto, 3.55 gears, HD/Tow Pkg, ORP
Slider, Keyless Entry/Alarm, Pwr/W/L/M/S

ADDED

Uniden PRO520XL/Wilson 1000 CB
Alpine CHM-S655RF 6 CD Changer
Ventshade Stepshields in grey color
In the mail:
Stillen bumper cover
Bladerunner grill insert

 

everything but my ears and the tree were fine. it was a sight to see, a huge flash , and the base of the tree, where it meets the ground, exploded. i sat on the floor in shock for a while, thinking of all that training i had in grammer school, under the desk, waiting for Russian missles, and those tricky bastards waited until i was much too large to fit under there to let me have it

 

My wife and I were in bed on night, sleeping, when lightning vaporized an electrical meter pole in our back yard. It was about 15 feet from our bedroom window. It's amazing to me, when lightning strikes that close, It almost seems like the KABOOM happens before the flash.

Cool thread MRBBQ!

Later,
Jake...

P.S. MRBBQ are you planning on attending WFC4? I would really enjoy meeting you someday.

 

1979 in guston kentucky sitting in a lawn chair drinking jack daniels with roomate in the rain all of a sudden about 20 feet away lighting strikes and hits our clothes line between two trees ( bailing wire ) we didnt move an inch kept on drinking next morning check the tree out and found our clothes line melted in the tree abound inch deep
dam i love jd

[This message has been edited by fordtec2001 (edited 03-22-2001).]

 

Here in the tampa bay area (lightning capitol of the world)and working for the telephone company i have had a few enconters with lightning. One time while working in a manhole lightning hit a ploe down the street and it went throught the manhole scarred the crap out of me. Just last summer when walking to my old truck to go home from work lightning hit a tree about 200 ft. away and all i saw was a flash and kaboom. It was like somebody set off a flash camera in your face. I couldn't see for about 20 seconds.Ive got some other stories but thats enough.

 

i was driving home from school one day in my 4-runner (vehicle previous to my F-150). I live in Colorado at the time, and there was a pretty stong thunderstorm brewing. As i pulled into my driveway, a lightning bolt not 20 feet away hit and zapped the huge 35-40 foot tree right next to me. WHAT A SITE! I have never seen a tree disenegrate before. That tree was practically vaporized.

 

Watching a storm from the front porch as a kid in Tucson, Az. Lightning struck the telephone pole across the street, about 75' away. That was close enough. Watched the rest of the storm from inside the house.

 

Remember the way that ionized air smelled......WOW. On the golf course about ten years ago, in S Fla., sitting in the cart near, not under, a tree about 20 ft. away.....POW....the tree gets hit. WE both about sh*t our pants. Did finish the round though, after the one cloud wonder passed by. Still can remember that smell!

 

Have you guys ever seen what an electrical storm will do to a herd of cattle? When I was going to school in Durango, once a week as a lab we rode out to Hesparus to bring the cattle in. We had a storm coming in when we went out to pull the herd and the flank riders started hollerin for us to pull back and get out of the herd...has anyone ever seen Lonesome Dove? You can see currents travel horn to horn and it's pretty dangerous to be caught in the middle of it. Can anybody explain why it doesn't hurt the cows? Baffled me. I have also seen the aftermath of a bolt hit a tree a cow was standing up against, or at least pretty dang close. Not pretty.
CA

[This message has been edited by WhiteLightninSVTGirl (edited 03-23-2001).]

 

My Lightning stories merely duplicate yours, and you are right the smell is awesome and never forgotten.

My other major "Near to God" experience was when a hurricane hit Connecticut in the mid '80s as I recall. I will never forget my Pat yelling at me to come down to the basement and I could not resist standing on the front porch and watching the winds mow down row after row of pine trees alongside the sidewalks and then just flat uprooted two massive oak trees and threw them down like a couple of matchsticks. We got an oak limb through the front corner of the house and were without electricity for about 4 days.

Bloody awesome nature is.