STORM2K

I am relatively new to the board, so I apologize if a thread like this has already been discussed. Just let me know if it has, and we can get rid of this one!

Anyway, I know as weather enthusiasts, most of us have probably had a closer-than-we'd-like experience with lightning and thought it would be fun to hear the stories!

While I live in Oklahoma now, I grew up in the Twin Cities metro area in Minnesota. I must have been 9 or 10 years old at the time, and VERY protective of my dog, Misty.

There was a thunderstorm in the area, and of course Misty had to go outside at that exact time. As a kid, I was TERRIFIED of thundstorms and would hide all the way through them! I hooked Misty up on her chain outside while she looked for the perfect spot, and I ran back inside to wait for her. Suddenly I could just hear the air SIZZLE.. It was the weirdest noise in the world, immediately followed by a blinding flash and crashing thunder.

I flew out of the house to rescue my Misty! I grabbed her and brought her back inside. She wasn't phased by it one bit.. haha Lightning had struck the light pole across the street from our house. My parents couldn't believe I ran outside after that (with my fear and all), but I guess it's just something a girl will do for the love of her dog!

When I was a kid, lightning hit the swimming pool behind my house while I was downstairs making some toast for a midnight snack. The electricity travelled up the wires to my house, blowing off some of the siding around the cable box and then giving me and the toaster a little "buzz" on its way to completely frying the television, vcr, cable box and air conditioner.

Closest I ever came to a lightning strike was in May, a strike maybe 1/4 mile away.

I don't remember how close a lightning strike was in my vincinity, all I know is that the lightning struck so near that there was thunder at the same time. This took place in May 1998, the strike was just enough to take out the power of Stephen F. Austin Middle School, the school I went for grades 6th through 8th.

A year or two ago I was watching a storm out of my second floor window when lightning struck my neighbor's roof, probably less than 100 feet from where I was sitting. The color of the flash was green for a split second, and the noise was incredible...

Also, a month or two ago lightning struck one of the street lights outside my house. The light went out for about an hour, but came back on eventually.

One night after I closed the store I worked at ( Circle K) I was driving home when I passed a building on the route I take home. I drove past the building only a second before lightning struck the building. The noise was incredibleand the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I was shaking for the rest of the short drive to the house.

About 9 years ago at work. During a thunderstorm lightning hit a tree right across the street, about 50 feet away. All the bark exploded right off the tree and it was left smoking. Not even a minute later, it hit the tree again!

I was at my internship on Tuesday and a thunderstorm rolled through Western Green Bay. (My internship is at NBC 26 in the wx dept... go figure). Anyways, we were in the middle of the newscast and lightning struck the studio. The anchors felt tingling from being 'plugged' in. The mobile mic's were fine, but everyone that was plugged into the set, cameras, computers, etc felt the tingling. We went black for 10-15 seconds, computers had to be rebooted, IFB was lost for 2 minutes (ear pieces), the tech guy had to be called into the studio to reset the wx computers. Doppler, thankfully, was not hit. We think is was the generator that was hit, because we didn't have the generator when the power went out.

I work at a golf course here in South Florida. 3 months ago, we had a nasty cell come through and I was outside on the walkie talkie making sure everyone was off the course and had sought shelter. I had been leaning on a flagpole talking on the walkie talkie and I started to walk away back towards the clubhouse. Boom, the flagpole was struck and I was knocked over. It's amazing I got knocked forward onto the ground, but I didnt feel the electricity nor was i hurt. That was the scariest thing in my life and I plan on being a little more careful out there.

A couple weeks ago.. 2 houses up... hit the tree.. bark in my yard.

Early summer afternoon clouds were building, but there were no storms occurring when I decided to take my two young sons to the rickety old railroad bridge not far from our house.

The tracks lay across a bed of railroad ties supported by wooden girders. The bridge had a wonderful history. The original tarzan (Johnny Weismueller), so goes the tale, used to practice diving to the river below from that bridge. Many an engagement ring had been tossed from there. I appreciated the stories the bridge could tell.

My sons appreciated being high above the water and able to see the river between those railroad ties.

Out of the blue...really...out of the blue came a lightning bolt that zipped past us. My hair stood up on my neck. I looked at my boys. They looked at me. Jarrod, the youngest, was so small we had to walk carefully so as not to wedge his foot between those ties.

Before we could ford the river to the other end of the bridge, another cloud-to-ground strike hit nearby. Large cold raindrops began to slap us on the face.

Calmly on the outside, with great fear on the inside, we huddled under a nearby parking canopy...itself made of sheet metal, until the storm passed to the east.

I have never forgotten that moment. Nor have the boys.

We could smell the sulphur.

We have not been back on the bridge since.

I was out on the golf course and we were heading back to the shop(we could hear thunder, it still was distant, rain hadn't started yet) and then lightning struck a tree about 100 yards from us. Well... needless to say, we picked up the pace a bit.

This summer, lightning struck in my neighbors yard while I was on the computer.

It was raining, had not heard any lightning, and all of the sudden, BAM! My husband and I both jumped out of our skins. Went and looked outside, saw dirt flying up in the air.

The weirdest experience I have ever had was witnessing the "St. Elmos Fire" rare weather phenomenon.

While out boating with some friends last year in the Gulf, a typical evening shower snuck up on us. We went down into the cabin because it was raining pretty bad and lots of lightning.

About a half hour later, when it calmed down, we came back up, and heard a noise that sounded like electricity buzzing. Someone then noticed, that one of the antena's on the boat (Which didn't work and wasn't connected to any wires) was glowing blue. Looked like a little blue halo around the antena.

We then noticed and felt that our hair was standing up. Scared the heck out of us. We thought we where about to be struck, or something. Ruined our night, we headed back to the Marina.

None of us knew exactly what it was. We assumed it had something to do with the electicial currents in the sky.

My husband mentioned it to a Captain who told him what it was. That was one night, I will never forget!

When I was in my teens, lightning hit a palm tree in my back yard while I was standing at the window looking out at the rain. Knocked me on my ass.

About 10 feet away, IIRC.

Another lightning strike took place at my baby sitter's apartment complex about 10 years ago. Only the roof got singed, luckily, there were no injuries.

I was hit in the head by a bolt last summer in TX. spent a week in the hospital. Ever since then, I cannot feel certain cold, heat, or pain.

Tornado Chaser

Mine was back in 1976. My best friend's Grandparents owned a beach house in Gulf Shores, AL. It was her birthday and a bunch of kids went to spend the weekend. We all slept downstairs in bunk beds. A bad storm rolled through and lightning came through the window and hit her new TV (in the room with us). We were startled and frightened!

About 1981 or so....I was sitting on our sofa in the den during a severe summer electrical storm. My younger sister was sitting in a chair nearby, her bare feet propped on a metal box fan (the fan was plugged in but not running). Lightning struck a tree in our front yard, and somehow the current entered our home and the fan....burning my sister's feet and ankles, and shocking her mouth (because of her braces).

Sis began screaming and crying...said lightning hit her. Dad quickly called an ambulance, and sis was rushed to the hospital, but fortunately suffered no serious injuries....the ER doctor said she was very lucky (the fan never worked afterwords...motor was burned out by the lightning induced power surge

I was at dinner one night, and a lightning bolt struck outside in the center of the street. Maybe...100 feet away?

Another time I was at my girlfriends house spending the night with some other friends of ours (Don't worry, we were going on vacation the next day it's not what you think) Her power went out becuase the lightning was TERRIBLE...striking trees...pretty much everything around us

The closest one I have been to is one that actually hit my own house when I was in it. The closest strike that I have seen was probably around 1/8 mile or so...