How close have you came to a lightning-strike whilst /out/ing?
>>2749216Three metres away. It hit my mate who was standing just a little higher on the hill than I was.
>>2749216About 50m. Close enough to taste the ozone after it.
Lightning scares the shit out of me
>>2749316Me too bruddah. I'm a big bastard that isn't scared of much but the clouds start building when I'm up high? I'm gtfoing. Too many stories growing up about those fools that overnighted in the cave on half dome and my parents had some close calls. I don't like them Sam I Am
>>2749316Try a dry thunderstorm, lighting and forest fires all rolled into one.
I was out paddle boarding on a small lake in amongst a big sitka spruce plantation a few months ago and saw some dark clouds in the south. It was literally the first day all year Ive been out and I said fuck it. Anway, I'm out there for 10 mins and I start hearing booming noisesOkay, Im concerned now but its still far away and looks to be moving east while I am moving west. I know this sounds stupid but I didnt realise how dangerous it is to be out on the water during such weather. I was still planning to do a few loops. The booming gets louder and I see darkness is enveloping the eastern shore I left. After finding some reception I look up lightning and lakes, when I see that lightning can strike up to several miles from where the clouds are I get really nervous and just at that point I see a flash way off among the clouds.I'm hyperventilating and start paddling as hard as I can back towards the west, I cant go back to eastern shore its too dangerous. Except the western side is just overgrown bushes and bog. I know there is fire road somewhere and I spend 20 mins in an off the water trying to find it. I drag that piece of shit board up the hill and over onto solid track. I'm thankful to be on brighter side now but now I still need to get out of there and I have to walk about 5 mile around the track back to the shore to get my stuff and go back to the car and Im wearing nothing but neoprene socksIn the end I walked 10 miles in socks and paddled maybe 20 mins
>>2749341Lolz. Sounds like something I would do.
>>2749316same. there is little that will make me sprint for home/my car/some kind of shelter faster than hearing thunder or seeing a flash of lightning. even if it's distant. I won't even sleep in a tent in a thunderstorm after reading about how you can get electrocuted through the ground. I am absolutely fucking terrified of lightning.I think the worst part is that you don't really get any warning if you're about to be struck. at least none that you'd be able to act on. if your hair starts standing up it's basically already too late.
>>2749290is he alive???
was on a boat in a lightning storm at night once, was pretty terrifying, but also very beautiful
This past summer I was caught in a lightning storm while climbing up a small mountain. The sky was completely blue until I crested the ridge I was working up and found a storm was coming in from the only angle I couldn't see. I made it a little ways down before it became too slippery and wet to move any further without falling down every other step. I at least got into the trees where I was less exposed and then proceeded to assume the lightning position for the next 20-30 until ilthe storm passed. I was counting the seconds between the lightning and thunder and if I remember right it was around 5-7 seconds which was fairly disconcerting. The rain also picked up and turned into heavy hail. I had some rain gear, but i wasn't quite prepared for this kinda downpour.There was one strike in particular that really got me. I saw the flash very bright and distinct at eye level on the other side of the river I was looking across. And almost instantly the loudest boom of thunder I've ever heard absolutely shook my whole being and then I could hear the echo tear down the the river valley. It was like witnessing the indiscriminate wrath of God and I had to just sit and wait and see if it was going to fall on me the next time.I'm lucky there was only one strike that close because I was ready to have a mental breakdown after that.
>>2749216https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNrJuNswDsE
>>2749341I mean, it's not that dangerous. It's dangerous-er but you're still winning the lottery with a strike.
>>2749844wtf was wrong with the 80s
>>274921650m or so.was heading for a fishing lake at the foot of this mountain when a tunderstorm broke out. had to run back to my car (about where the photo is taken) either risking lightning strike running across the dam or risk flooding running below it. i chose the lightning. a strike hit just behind my car as i was running across the dam.
One time I was fishing during a thunderstorm and my hair started standing up. I dropped my rod and ran to the house. I don't know if it hit the ground, but I wasn't going to stay and find out.
>>2749341>wearing nothing but neoprene socks
I've been caught in a couple thunderstorms on Tumamoc Hill in Tucson. One time a lightning storm developed right above me while I was chilling at the top. I laid down between some big rocks and waited it out. I got soaked but the rocks kept me warm.
>>2749216>hear thunder in distance>turn around and hike back down the trail or into a rock coveThought this was basic knowledge. If you're doing an exposed summit or rock face during a day which had storms forcasted that's on you man.
>>2749886>I laid down between some big rocks>>2749941
>>2749840Lighting at close range is really something everyone should experience honestly. Closest I saw was a tree like 30 feer from my back door and I know exactly what you mean about the indiscriminate wrath of God.
Went for a casual hike with 2 of my brothers. I'm the oldest , and they were about 20 and 14. We decided to climb up this small rocky mountain, not a proper mountain more like a really big hill of giant boulders, but surrounded by flat plains with few trees. There were some sketchy areas while we were getting to the top, like angled areas covered in lichen over a several hundred feet drop onto more rocks. But we made it to the top just fine.Then a sudden afternoon storm came out of nowhere, and I mean from nowhere, because you can see weather coming from miles away out there, since it's just plains and no trees, you can see very far. Anyway the rain meant that we couldn't go back down the way we came, because lichen is very slippery when it's wet and that drop would be lethal. If it was just me then I'd have done it very carefully, but I wasn't gonna watch either of them fall. So we were just gonna wait it out, it was still warm and a warm rain so not bad at all, even though there was no cover up there.Then my brother and I looked at each other (we both have long hair) and saw it was standing straight up, and realized what danger we were in. We'd both seen lightning explode a tree from up close when we were kids, very hot and blinding white, seemed like it lasted for a long time, knocked us down. Anyway we played it cool so the youngest wouldn't panic while quickly looking for a way to get down lower.I found a big jump, maybe 10 feet down and 10 feet across, over a deep crevice between two solid stone walls that I couldn't see the bottom of. Again, not that crazy, but with the rain and being worried about my younger brothers, I was pretty nervous though I was careful not to show it, for their sake. Anyway I beckoned them over and made the jump first, said follow me. I told the youngest to go first and I got ready to jump out and catch him if I needed to. Not sure if it would have helped much, but I was going to try. Fortunately, he made it perfectly.
>>2750550Then the next one made it, but I knew he would. The rest of the story isn't particularly interesting, we just kept going down while being careful and didn't have to do anything else dangerous on the wet rocks, except a sort of spiderman walk between two rock walls before we got to the ground, at which time it stopped raining.oh, I checked a cave (more like a pile of rocks) for shelter we could wait in until the storm passed, and I'm 80% sure I saw a mountain lion already hiding in there, looking back at me. I decided to try our luck elsewhere and didn't mention it to them. We all did a good job of staying calm and reasonable, but I don't think the youngest realized how much danger we were really in.
Decide to camp above treeline about a thousand feet from the peak of this mountain at around 6500'. The mountain is saddle shaped with a dip in the middle so there are some trees in the area that is protected by the mountain and I am camped at the edge of those trees.The weather forcast is sunny but with a 35*C degree drop in temperature overnight to near freezing. That includes wind chill so I just expect some strong winds.Right at sunset I see storms forming over the mountain ranges to the south. It takes about 15 minutes for those storms to be over this mountain and for about 5 minutes all the lightning was hitting the peak I was on. I don't know how many strikes but it was a lot, I counted the seconds between the explosions to keep calm and rarely got to five. All the time you could hear the electricity discharging into the air from the rocks and trees.As bad as the lightning was it was only half the danger. Winds were over 100kph and there was pebble sized hail along with falling trees and branches.Eventually BOOM, then silence, everything goes red, then white and I am temporarily blinded. The air is filled with plastic smoke making it hard to breath. I figure lightning hit one of the trees the tent was tied down to - the paracord was melted to the tree and to the tent and the tent itself heat up to the point it partially vapourized. Even though I could feel the electricity travel through my body from the ground and out into the air I was uninjured and think this is partly because I wasn't touching the tent and was standing on a foam mat doing "the pose", ie hands over head, elbows on knees, feet together, and heels off the ground.Ironically I had just told a female hiker that she probably should not stay on the mountain because of the forecast about an hour earlier.
>>2750550>>2750551>>2751304you are good brother. >I wasn't touching the tent and was standing on a foam mat doing "the pose", ie hands over head, elbows on knees, feet together, and heels off the ground.I never heard of this, interesting. no one ever told me. How is this pose saving people? like, electricity flowing different?
>>2751366It prevents the electricity from flowing through your heart or brain, which is the most dangerous part of it.
>>2749216less than 10 meters, definitely got lucky that day
>>2751366It demonstrates your submission to the mighty electricity, from whom you beg a boon after assuming the pose of worship
I was following a storm (by car) up the coast to watch some lightning, and a cloud to ground cracked off less than 100yds in front of me. I was standing on the edge of a cliff, and it hit the tide pools 80ft below. It was pretty crazy; instant sound. Also, when it was dissipating, I could see these little orb things coming off of it and disappearing. I'm probably retarded, but we never get ground strikes over here.
>>2751366The NWS stopped recommending it in 2008 because it wasn't actually helping
>>2749844Haha thanks for sharing, when I'm in a thundetstorm this song is going to make me feel calm
>>2749216what were they wearing? probably mini skirts.
>they dont want u to get anointed with thors divine grace
>>2749877Shit I’m bald, I’m cooked
>>2749216When I was 16 I got struck by lightning inside my house during a tornado (long story).Many many years later I was walking home from work (about 15mins usually) and a horrible lightning storm descended on me, was absolutely pouring rain like a waterfall and flash flooding, as I was scooting to the train station for cover lightning hit the ground TWICE within like 10m of where I was walking.I waited drenched under cover for about 20mins until it started to slow down, and then bolted out to get home. I had to walk along an elevated pedestrian walkway over the railroad tracks and lighting hit the goddamn train tracks below me. I seriously came so close to copping it directly three fucking times that afternoon.>have never won the lottery tho
https://youtu.be/ntJ49lMxP4A
>>2749216Meh, my whole family is super conductive. Dad got struck holding a doorknob, basically was the conduit that fried every electronic in the house. He was thrown back and his arm was numb for like an hour. He was fine.I hope to get struck one day. It's a family tradition. I've been close, like couple dozen yards away, but usually the trees take it instead. Just gotta grab your left foot with your left hand and use your right to reach for the sky!
Not outside.But once I was playing an electric guitar during some heavy monsoon style rain and lightning hit the electrical pole outside my house and I felt a zap through the guitar. I have touched 230 volts a few times too many and this had a harder hit without that same buzz you get from A/C. The pain didn't even last more than the even itself which it usually does.
>>2749216I detasseled corn as a teenager and one time my crew got caught in a sudden downpour. Sure, we had some dark clouds heading our way, but usually if the rain was casual, we just kept working. Just before the rain really started, the crew lead got radio'd by HQ to take shelter and shouted for us all to sprint back to the van. As we ran through the rows back to the van, the rain really started coming down and thunder started rumbling. I was maybe 50 yards from the van still and I was running the fastest I'd ever ran. To my left, a singular tree at the edge of the field was suddenly struck by lightning. I think it was maybe 30 yards. That was the loudest noise I have ever experienced and I thought I was about to die. I remember I thought the sound was like in Star Wars Episode 2, when Jango Fett uses those shockwave bombs in the asteroid field. Anyway, we all made it back to the van in one piece and waited out the rain, which was about 30 minutes. I had left my lunch cooler inside the van, so I had lunch. When the storm passed and we went back outside, we saw the tree had basically exploded from the lighting. All in all, a really terrifying experience.
Not as interesting as other stories here, but I was smoking a cigarette on my front porch during a storm around 4am a few years back when lighting struck the transformer for the house maybe 50ft away from me. Simultaneously the loudest and brightest thing I have ever witnessed.>Shitty rural power company took three days to get my power back on
>>2749216One time I was forking hay for cows in a thunderstorm and I lifted my pitch fork above my head and the tines started vibrating at a high frequency. I was fascinated for about 5 seconds. Then I realized I was in terrible danger, so I threw my fork down and sat in the truck until the storm passed.
I got struck by lightning through a river in Turner Falls Oklahoma. It struck the water some miles or so away but it was awful. Me and five friends, plus two kids nearby. I saw a white flash and every muscle in my body contracted as hard as it possibly could for just an instant. Opened my eyes and heard the thunder rolling away. Everyone silently rushed out of the river as fast as possible. One friend who was out of the water didn't know what happened and didn't believe us lmao. Felt pretty fine after but I was endlessly drunk and high on this trip anyway, but the next day the bottoms of my feet felt like I had been walking on hot coals. 0/10 would not do again, I gtfo the water any time I hear thunder at all now
