Double lightning at the exact moment Newcastle, Australia......

[Justdroppedin]

[The Noof]

Unimaginable energy.

[Gates07]

you see how thick that bolt was, wow, good thing no one was on the beach, wonder if that made any glass?

[The Noof]

you see how thick that bolt was, wow, good thing no one was on the beach, wonder if that made any glass?

Fulgurites...I bet there's a couple of beauties after those strikes.

[The Noof]

When I was 8 years old, I was fishing a local creek with 2 friends one summer morning in August.A wicked thunder/hail storm came out of nowhere it seemed.The hail was cherry sized & brutally painful, so we took shelter under a maple tree near the shores edge.A massive bolt destroyed a 50 foot tall pine tree about 40 feet from where we were.All our hair stood up for a second or 2.One of my friends fell to the ground & looked very dazed.Don't know if some part of the lightning found him or not.He was nauseous for 5 minutes but otherwise fine.He could have got it through the roots, because the roots of both trees were smoldering.Didn't even tell our parents for fear of gettin' it for being so stupid.Ever since that day I have been fascinated, & very respectful of the thunderstorm.
I should mention that my friend who may or may not have been struck died of brain cancer some 7 years later.Who knows?

[TLG]

I was standing at the front door waiting for the rest to get ready to leave the house
looking at the tree across the street swaying in the wind, it got dark real fast and a wind storm was picking up
when, all of a sudden, there was the sound of a welding arc, then the sound of wood cracking ,, followed by a huge thunder boom

The tree I was looking at, which had a diameter of approx. 3 - 4 feet, got hit by a lightning strike, and split in 2 like a banana, it also lost 2 branches, which were approx. 8 - 10 inches in diameter

Man !! that was something to see ,, it all happened within "the flash of a camera"

Like the noof mentioned ,,, unimaginable energy .... unimaginable power to split that tree in 2 like that

[The Noof]

hxxps://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/record-breaking-lightning-bolts-spark-excitement-180975223/#:~:text=On%20October%2031%2C%202018%2C%20a,lightn ing%20strike%20recorded%20to%20date.
This is accepted as the most powerful lightning strike recorded.Read the data.SIXTEEN second duration, & approximately 20 billion watts.Geezuz.

[The Noof]

I was standing at the front door waiting for the rest to get ready to leave the house
looking at the tree across the street swaying in the wind, it got dark real fast and a wind storm was picking up
when, all of a sudden, there was the sound of a welding arc, then the sound of wood cracking ,, followed by a huge thunder boom

The tree I was looking at, which had a diameter of approx. 3 - 4 feet, got hit by a lightning strike, and split in 2 like a banana, it also lost 2 branches, which were approx. 8 - 10 inches in diameter

Man !! that was something to see ,, it all happened within "the flash of a camera"

Like the noof mentioned ,,, unimaginable energy .... unimaginable power to split that tree in 2 like that

When you're VERY close to a lightning strike, as we were, the noise is not at all what it sounds like from afar:it's a brutal
CRRRRRAAACK ...the boom you hear when afar isn't there at all.

[dogdayz]

The Toronto lightning rod...

[The Noof]

You wouldn't wanna stand on top of the antenna & blaspheme during a thunder storm...lol

[Gates07]

something sticking up like that, that acts as ground must have a lot of double 00 copper wire to carry that much electricity