Just Glad to Be Here

[paul frey]

Never been that close to lightning and after hearing that story I hope I never am. Glad everyone is OK

[Scrappy]

Glad it all turned out ok. That same storm came through our place around 3 or 4am.  The amount of lighting woke me up, although we also had plenty of thunder.

[mccuha]

Scary situation.  I was on the lake one night when a big storm rolled in very quickly. Had to hide under a bunch of trees on a island before it passed.glad you guys made it out safely 

[MUSTANGER7]

Glad you all are ok!!   Here in Florida we see an awful lot of it, it in our horse pasture about 300yds away, blew a circle of about 20ft wide took a couple of years beore grass would grow there. Been out in the flats boats and our hair started standing up, just went like !!!! and hoped to make it. When I was a kid I was riding my motorcycle and a bolt hit 50 or so yds to my left and I saw  a blue arch go across my handlebars.

[1971snipe]

I echo everyone's sentiment, glad you guys are ok.  Scary situation.  

[MTRookie76]

Glad you and Lillian got out of there. Lighting is no joke.

[Flushing Whip]

Wonderful story and I'm glad it all worked out too. When I was a kid, my uncle went down to the barn and raised the 'garage" style door. Just as he did, lightening hit the barn and somehow it got to the door, my uncle and his foot that was off the ground. It blew the boot right off his foot and knocked him unconscious. The next day my grampa took me with him to visit Uncle John in the hospital and his foot was badly burned-- plus about 2-3x as big as the good one. In the end, he recovered and didn't even limp-- but he was grateful to survive it too.

[Don Steese]

Very glad you are all home safe and sound. People, dogs and horses!

[dgfavor]

Thanks all!  Feeling very fortunate that it didn't end badly.  Gave us a good scare for sure!  I think the real scare came from feeling like it was going to happen again and the unpredictability of knowing where and when.

 

Quick research says majority of what we saw was probably sheet lightning, cloud to cloud, as mentioned above.  And probably much higher than we perceived with the sound disipating before we could hear it.  The cloud cover was so low I think it just created this feeling it was right on our heads.  I only saw two cloud to ground strikes...and one of those waaaaaay to close.  Damn scary and we feel lucky.  No idea why it hit the flat featureless ground and not us.  I don't know how close you can get to a bolt of lightning but feel like we had to have been right on the threshold of safe/not safe.

 

[greg jacobs]

Lightning started here in central WA about 11pm and lasted till 4am. Bunch of rain and wind with it.

Lightning gets quite a bit more exciting up at higher altitude. Can get scarry and loud up on the ridges 

Sounds like beanie was ready to head home. 

Glad all of you came through it unharmed.

[Wisconsin]

Great story with a happy ending. Could have been a worse outcome.

 

I’d cut and paste this story into the “Essay” forum. There it will remain for others to read.

 

Ken

[bobman]

“Sheet lightning”as in holy sheet that was too close!

 

Thank God you weren’t hurt or worse.

[Grifish]

Yikes! Glad you’re still with us, too!

[Dick Sellers]

Man, that story got the hair on the back of my neck standing up.  Scary situation for you guys - very glad it ended okay.

[marysburg]

Lightning can be so unpredictable.  We live on the prairie, and our nearest neighbours are 1/4 mile away.  One SUNNY afternoon, the neighbour was digging in a metal culvert to help drain his yard.  In a large (1/2 acre) clearing, there was a backhoe, bulldozer, the farmer and the culvert on flat ground.  I was outside in our yard 1/4 mile away when I heard a LOUD crack like a lightning strike, but the only cloud was a small one, and very far off.  Turns out, there was a lightning strike in the neighbour's yard.  It did not strike the backhoe, dozer with the driver sitting upright, metal culvert sitting on the ground or the landowner standing out in the middle of it all.  Instead, it struck the ground in the middle of the whole group.  Holy cow, it scared the living daylights out of me because it came out of nowhere.  All three of the men in that yard never forgot that day, and neither did I.  You can never predict what lightning will do.  Glad you folks came out of your hair raising situation in one piece.  Unforgettable story.