MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
About 5 metres in front of me outside the window into the street. Love tropical storms.
Closest I ever came was the other side of a window when I was at the gym. Never felt so insignificant in before - the crack was loud enough to rattle the windows and the lass on the running machine next to me screamed and ran off.
Unfortunately, the amount of rain means the street in the village floods, never been brave enough to walk up it in a thunderstorm yet.
Mate & his missus got struck by lightning last year,they were hiking in the lake district,mate got dragged off the hill with the mountain rescue his other half got a helicopter ride,15 months later & she's still not 100%.
I was up a viewing tower in Bavaria in the town I lived in next to our local pub, when a storm came over. We decided to watch it, until there was a lightening strike that weirdly seemed to be all around us. The lightening conductor on top of the tower started fizzing & popping like the arm attached to the Delorean at the end of BTTF!
The tower can be seen in this bit of woods.....
Closest I've been was one night there was a terrific electrical storm getting closer and closer, and I was watching out of my bedroom window. There was this blinding flash, and the air around me just crackled, like switching an old CRT tv off. There wasn't even a noticeable bang, and the lightning struck a house around a hundred meters away. I decided it was better to get my head back inside. The same storm struck a church steeple around a half a mile away, blowing all the slate tiles off. A bit scary that.
Best lightning storm I've been in was in glasgow about 8 or 9 years ago, 14 of us running about a pitch playing 7's with lightning all around us! brilliant so it was, if a little dangerous. Luckily, no strikes on the actuall pitch! Most atmospheric game of fitba ever! 🙂
Years ago I went out a summer evening road ride out over the moors into the Trough of Bowland; gorgeous evening, really warm and I was just wearing shorts and short sleeves. Got to about the highest point of the ride, the temperature had dropped like a stone, sky was black and I could see lightning striking not far behind me on occasional trees. I discounted the idea of riding back the way I'd come through that storm and being the tallest thing on an otherwise very bare moor and had to descend into the next valley and loop round the long way to get home.
Still got caught in the rain, arrived home absolutely soaked and almost blue with cold.
Saw a really good storm in the Alps once, watching lightning flicker over Mont Blanc and gradually coming closer. We were safely in our tents when the storm hit but watching it drift closer was incredible.
My sister and her BF and his kids got struck in a tent in Andorra, the lightning went down the tent pole, through the frame of a camp bed one of the kids was lying on, through a tin of Brillo pads, into the other pole and to Earth. Everybody screamed but of course it had already happened. They opened the tin of Brillo pads and found a smoking mass of molten metal and soap. Scary.
I had just stepped into this restaurant (left) in Spain when lightning hit the beach shower (right)
😯
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Got caught in a vicious storm doing the Camino de Santiago earlier this year, on the heights heading towards Burgos. On a steel bike 😕 Possible quote of the trip - "let's MTFU and get to Burgos!".
The descent on the polished limestone which had become a streambed was quite character building too... 😯
where i was living a few years ago, there was a jcb parked next door, about 20ft from where i was sitting, it got hit. Very loud bang!
lass on the running machine next to me screamed and ran off.
She wouldn't have got very far though
Last year, climbing out in the Alps, a stom came in while we were descending to a disused lift station to kip for the night. Watching blue sparks crackle off your protection, off the odd old piton, off water pools on the rock face, is pretty disconcerting. We scrambled into the old station as it rolled over and watched a couple of strikes on the building and the metal trail we'd just climbed over. Needless to say, sleep was a bit scarce that night.