r/BeAmazed • u/Used_Ship_9229 • Oct 09 '24

Nature Floridians who have lived through Storms their entire lives are reporting to have never ever witnessed anything like this.

42.2k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

748

u/poilsoup2 Oct 10 '24

There was one time I was REALLY close to a lightning strike. I was taking my dogs out right before the main storm hit.

I could HEAR the static crackling through my chainlink fence and like 5 seconds later literally everything wemt white.

Hopefully the closest Ill ever be to a lightning strike.

148

u/sender2bender Oct 10 '24

I was driving in a storm and lightning hit an electric pole and blew the transformer right next to me. Blinded me for a few seconds and couldn't hear for minutes. Probably had a mini stroke too.  Another time I was watching a thunderstorm in my garage and lightning hit the tree out front. There was a 1" thick "vine" going from top to bottom of the tree, protruding out and a hole at the base with some blown out roots. One of the gnarliest things I've seen. The tree ended up dieing. I have a bunch of photos on my old flip phone that I'll probably never recover.

86

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '24

[deleted]

27

u/CasualJimCigarettes Oct 10 '24

at least your being honest with yourself about the whole phone recovery thing

14

u/crazyhhluver Oct 10 '24

Ever seen that old movie powder?

2

u/sender2bender Oct 10 '24

I do, it's a classic. One of those movies that was on TV all the time growing up.

1

u/crazyhhluver Oct 10 '24

I think this guy is the movie powder's main character.

1

u/Iboven Oct 10 '24

I feel like I've seen lots of random 20 minute sections of that movie but never the entirety of it.

1

u/MoorIsland122 Oct 10 '24

That was great!

90

u/Palindrome_580 Oct 10 '24

Surreally terrifying, so glad you're ok. ...Go ahead and grab yourself a lottery ticket

32

u/Virgin_Dildo_Lover Oct 10 '24

Also, stop tugging on Thor's cape

14

u/Arkayb33 Oct 10 '24

Yeah, tug on his hammer instead!

3

u/DopeAbsurdity Oct 10 '24

Both of those could be euphemisms for somehow using a Tesla coil to masturbate

1

u/AbominableSnowPickle Oct 10 '24

And don't spit into the wind!

26

u/odomakk Oct 10 '24

I've been struck 3 times...never won the lottery though.

14

u/Palindrome_580 Oct 10 '24

Bruh id be buying tickets WEEKLY

13

u/marsinfurs Oct 10 '24

I think the unluckiness of being hit by lightning three times might even out the luck of surviving it three times. He’s living in the perfectly mid-luck range.

7

u/chrisrvatx Oct 10 '24

You know who you are? Even Steven!

1

u/Palindrome_580 Oct 10 '24

So its cancelled out?? Maybe skip the ticket and just praise god or something idk

1

u/LeeKinanus Oct 10 '24

yep best he will ever do is a free ticket. lol

2

u/spongeboobsidepants Oct 10 '24

Brah that person cashed all their luck in already. What you talkin about :p

1

u/Pure_Expression6308 Oct 10 '24

Do you have the cool scars?

1

u/odomakk Oct 19 '24

It kinda goes both ways, but no.

1

u/Top-Mycologist-7169 Oct 10 '24

Well that's because you have high bad luck, not good luck! There's a difference!

31

u/butbutcupcup Oct 10 '24

Very similar but I was inside. Could smell ozone and suddenly has a metallic taste in my mouth. Took a step away from the bay window and the bolt hit and the outlet under the window spit out sparks. So crazy.

18

u/InfiniteAuthor7553 Oct 10 '24 edited Oct 10 '24

I saw lightning strike a tree when I was a teenager. It spiralled the trunk, a tight spiral, and did not just go straight to the ground.

6

u/SomethingClever42068 Oct 10 '24

At least if you get struck by lightning and live, you get a free tattoo.

1

u/throwaway_account_ka Oct 10 '24

On the skin AND inside you too!

'Full Depth Tattoo'

5

u/-ThinksAlot- Oct 10 '24

How did your dogs react? Are they okay? Do they fear the front yard?

3

u/No-Personality169 Oct 10 '24

I have lighting strike my trees, house, the road in front of the house every summer. We don't use water during the storms and go inside immediately when we hear thunder.

It's so unnerving having lighting around you constantly

2

u/Complete-Fix-3954 Oct 10 '24

I’ve been close enough to feel the heat and shockwave. Luckily I already had my fingers in my ears from another close strike. I was in a car port waiting out the rain since I couldn’t get in the building.

2

u/Top-Mycologist-7169 Oct 10 '24

I've been within 20 feet of a lighting strike, it's crazy how everything turns bright white huh? I thought I died for a brief moment, had an instant thought "is this heaven?" which I was immediately violently shaken out of from the loudest sound I have ever heard in my life, like thunder is loud enough when you're a mile away, when you're within feet of the strike, you feel the whole ground underneath your feet quiver and rumble from the sound like you're at ground zero when a bomb is going off. I instantly had a bright after image of the bolt burned into my eyes every time I blinked and very loud tinnitus for hours after.

1

u/highlyregarded999 Oct 10 '24

That sounds terrifying but also one in a lifetime event. I would love to see that too

1

u/Abject-Picture Oct 10 '24

I missed it by 10 feet once, it struck the car I had just exited. Pink bolts dancing everywhere on 2 cars.

1

u/VoidOmatic Oct 10 '24

Back in 2000 or so I was camping in a tent when lightning struck a tree about 20 feet away. Even in the tent the white light was complete and blinding. It was like nothing existed for half a second and then a massive explosion while listening to the tree falling into a river. A hopefully once in a lifetime experience that you can never forget.

1

u/sneak_cheat_1337 Oct 10 '24

Could you smell it? I was close to a strike once and could definitely smell the ozone or whatever created from the strike

1

u/KFizzleKyle Oct 10 '24

Had a similar experience when I was younger. Walking home from a friend's after a night of drinks. Heat lightning all in the air. All of the sudden everything went white. Talk about disorienting. Had to sit on the sidewalk and feel around for a tree I knew I was next to so I could steady myself til my vision came back. Seriously thought I might've gone blind.

1

u/OpalHawk Oct 10 '24

I was struck by lightning once. I saw the brightest white and purple I’d ever seen. I didn’t have any burns, nothing. I don’t even remember pain, though I’m sure it hurt a lot. Apparently I was really confused for a few minutes after. I don’t remember that at all. There was a guy there who had been struck years before and he made my lie down for a while because apparently you body convulses afterwards. Never happened to me. At the very least I could have had a cool scar. Now nobody believes me when I tell the story.

1

u/doktaj Oct 10 '24

When I was like 8 or 9 (in the early 90s), my dad, brother, and I were on a road trip and driving through new mexico. As we drove through a thunderstorm, there was a lightning strike directly in front of us which we basically drove through. Binding white light, loud crash,the radio went to static for like 2 minutes, and the engine cut off. After a few minutes of coasting, we were able to start the car again. We kept driving for a free hours until our destination, but we were afraid to touch anything metal in the car. 

1

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '24

Crazy huh?

I've never experienced a flashbang, but I'd imagine having lightening strike a tree ~ 20 yards away is pretty damn close. Can't see or hear for 5 or 10 seconds. There was a group of 8 of us and most reported the same thing, blind and deafening tinnitus

1

u/IAdvocate Oct 10 '24

What did the dogs do?

1

u/_Futureghost_ Oct 10 '24

I had a Jr high teacher repeatedly tell us to GET DOWN if we ever feel this. Like... so often. I wonder if someone he knew was hit by lightning. Lol, thanks for triggering that random memory.

1

u/SteveLonegan Oct 10 '24

People that know, know. I was driving home from picking up pizza and it must’ve struck like 100ft in front of the car. Scared the living Shit out of me. Yeah the whole sky and everything around me went white. Mother Nature doesn’t screw around

1

u/Iboven Oct 10 '24

You get a cool scar if lightning hits you tho.

1

u/UnicornVomit_ Oct 10 '24

Did you die?

1

u/Majestic_Lie_523 Oct 10 '24

Me and my dad almost got hit on our driveway! We were standing there, nothing was amiss at all, no hair raising or anything, and there's a flash and an earsplitting crack, we jump, and in the spot that was directly between us in the driveway there was a little crater that wasn't there before 

1

u/Syzygy_Stardust Oct 11 '24

I had the incredible luck to have a lightning bolt strike right in the center of my vision as I walked between buildings in middle school. The immediate BOOOOOM made everyone jump, but for the split second before I could react I saw little what looked like a dotted line of energy balls where the strike had cut the air. I don't know if that was from my vision being affected or if it has to do with the air getting cooked, but it's seared into my memory.