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[Closed] Was I just hit by lightning?

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I was driving down the road after buying some beers from Tesco - residential quiet road with detached houses - heard a weird pop and saw a sort of plasma blue flash in in the rear view window. No thunder that I heard. It was so bizarre I was going to flag the mini down behind me to see what he/she saw, just drove home instead. Car seems fine! Any ideas? It's very strange. Definitely wasn't normal lighting in the sky.


 
Posted : 13/08/2020 11:05 pm
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heard a weird pop and saw a sort of plasma blue flash

I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcar


 
Posted : 13/08/2020 11:10 pm
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Aliens innit.

Your arse’ll be stinging in the morning


 
Posted : 13/08/2020 11:10 pm
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Detached houses you say? That changes my answer..


 
Posted : 13/08/2020 11:12 pm
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beers in the car too..makes you wonder.


 
Posted : 13/08/2020 11:16 pm
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Could be Ball lightning? Its weird stuff. Saw it in France once associated with a thunder storm. Multiple balls of plasma forming in and under clouds and staying for ages. They have been seen at various levels.


 
Posted : 13/08/2020 11:22 pm
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You were tasered, but failed to stop.


 
Posted : 13/08/2020 11:22 pm
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cbike: I've seen that twice before and was thinking the same thing. Sailors called it St Elmo's Fire. Really weird. I wished I stopped that mini now to see that it looked like from their perspective.


 
Posted : 13/08/2020 11:31 pm
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heard a weird pop and saw a sort of plasma blue flash in in the rear view window.

How far above the speed limit were you at the time?


 
Posted : 13/08/2020 11:31 pm
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Could be Ball lightning?

wearing nylon shorts on the way home from a curry ?


 
Posted : 13/08/2020 11:32 pm
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How far above the speed limit were you at the time?

Ah the Delorean.


 
Posted : 13/08/2020 11:33 pm
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Cougar, I drive like a saint. Below the speed limit and no speed cameras anyway.


 
Posted : 13/08/2020 11:35 pm
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Er, I think Cougar suspected flux capacitor activation rather than a GATSO


 
Posted : 13/08/2020 11:37 pm
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heard a weird pop and saw a sort of plasma blue flash in in the rear view window.

As long as you didn't follow through, it's not a shart.


 
Posted : 13/08/2020 11:43 pm
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Does sound a bit like St Elmo's fire. My dad was an RAF pilot, and used to see it round the cockpit when flying in thunderstorms.

I don't understand physics though so I also like the nylon shorts theory.


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 12:06 am
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Maybe you died and the afterlife is just the stw forum?


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 12:21 am
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I was driving down the road after buying some beers from Tesco – residential quiet road with detached houses –

Strange that the incident didn't give you a semi.


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 12:25 am
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Didn't happen till your mum walked past.


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 12:50 am
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Have you checked that you’re still in the same year as you were yesterday?


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 7:41 am
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Overhead power lines arcing? Not sure about here in the UK, but is a common occurance where I grew up in Texas. Lines (neighborhood power, not high voltage) brush up against a tree branch or similar in high winds, and arc and pop as you drescribe.


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 7:47 am
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Could be a pole top transformer* going pop.

That would give you precisely that effect. I saw it happen recently.

*Dunno the technical name


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 8:15 am
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Maybe you died and the afterlife is just the stw forum?

There is a hell, after all....


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 9:25 am
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wearing nylon shorts on the way home from a curry ?

Couldn't have been, shorts not allowed


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 9:39 am
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I was in a church once sheltering from a storm on a cycle tour when it got hit by lightning - it was really clear what had happened but I'm damned if I could describe it to you clearly. We just sort of knew. Everything went white and there was a bit of a sound, but that might have been because the church was so echoy.


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 10:44 am
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Everything went white and there was a bit of a sound, but that might have been because[s] the church was so echoy.[/s] we had displeased the gods.

Ftfy


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 10:49 am
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I was once stood about a hundred yards from a tree when it got struck - what I remember most clearly was that I was cowering on the ground before I had even recognised that there was a very loud bang and realised what it was. It was loud...


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 10:57 am
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Everything went white and there was a bit of a sound, but that might have been because we had displeased the gods.

The normal 'burst into flames' on the Church threshold defence mechanism must've been on the blink.


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 10:59 am
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I've been in a car struck by lightning, the flash and bang were simultaneous and it was loud. This was on a freeway in Texas, it was not raining but you could see the clouds and lightning.


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 11:04 am
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I imagine you'd know if the car was struck. It's loud. You could have a look over the top to see if you can find any small burn marks from the lightning entry / exit points.

Was standing on the other side of the road from a lightning strike a few years ago. Was deafened for a few minutes and the sheer power of it was jaw-dropping. Purple flash (you could almost taste it, even if that sounds an idiotic thing to say) and the ground shook.


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 11:51 am
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Today's random lightning fact of the day.

The temperature increase in the aluminium conduction tape of a buildings lightning protection system during a lightning strike is approximately 0.3 degrees C.


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 12:01 pm
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Hmm interesting points. I think I was under some overhead lines.


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 12:14 pm
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are you taking your Teenage Mother to the Enchantment under the Sea dance tonight?


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 12:21 pm
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How far above the speed limit were you at the time?

Were you doing 88 miles per hour?


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 12:23 pm
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Our house was struck two nights ago. Fried the alarm system (it hit the outside bell) and the thunder clap made the patio doors flex about an inch, im amazed they didnt shatter. It was one hell of a bang.


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 12:25 pm
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Was SaxonRider giving you a lift back from a Joe Cocker gig?


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 12:25 pm
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Was SaxonRider giving you a lift back from a Joe Cocker gig?

You know he’s dead, right?


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 12:29 pm
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You know he’s dead, right?

What? Saxon Rider?

That is grave news indeed.


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 12:32 pm
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Probably best to stay in your car if there's lightning going on


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 12:37 pm
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Were you doing 88 miles per hour?

Merde, beat me to it!


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 12:47 pm
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There weren't any naked people wandering about afterwards were there?


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 1:08 pm
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Er, I think Cougar suspected flux capacitor activation rather than a GATSO

I appreciate the benefit of the doubt but can't take credit here, I was actually thinking of a speed camera.


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 3:32 pm
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Did you pass two men duelling with broadswords and wearing long flasher macs? I suspect that the pop you heard was a head hitting the floor while Conor McLeod of Clan McLeod levitated in the blue glow, shouting "There can be only one!" and looking moody about his lost love.


 
Posted : 14/08/2020 4:36 pm