I was a lifeguard in high school. During a storm I went out in the rain to collect the fanny packs of medical supplies (we didn’t have to wear them back then). As I was rounding the last corner of the pool, lightning struck something across the parking lot (it was a big lot) about 50-100 yds away. I heard the bolt come down in a crackle and I turned to see it hit the ground. Everything happened in super slow motion: I remember turning as it connected and anticipating the boom. Even though I kind of joke about getting struck by lightning as a bucket list item, witnessing the amount of energy that is any lightning bolt is very humbling and a little terrifying. I still love being in electrical storms, though!

My grandparents were asleep when lightning struck a tree perhaps 10 feet< away just on the other side of the wall their headboard was against. I recall that there was a window next to their bed. My grandfather said he thought the house was exploding because of the way everything was illuminated. I was asleep about 20 feet away across the hall. It still feels like the loudest noise I could ever have imagined. I didn’t have a window looking directly at it but the entire house was lit up. Quite the ”shock” being awoken from a deep sleep with the combination of lightning & thunder. I remember how much it smelled like ozone as well.

Lightning hit the ground right in front of the car i was in. Honestly no clue how close it was for too bright.

I’ve seen some trees get hit. My neighbors’ just a couple years ago. It caught fire on the inside which was pretty cool. It was a huge old oak, just kinda went out on its own and they cut it down a couple weeks later.

I went to high-school with a guy who was struck. He was in a coma. I was in school with him after, I think he was a junior at 19. His goatee grew in stripes of orange to red.

When I was in my early teens when my family and I heard an extremely close lightning strike. I think we were sitting outside and saw the lightning but didn’t see where it hit

I looked over and realized it had struck a tree a few houses up

“The tree is on fire!” Mom, Dad, and myself ran downstairs; mom drove us up the road with shovels in the back and Dad and I hopped out

A couple neighbors showed up just about the same time as us. One had a blanket and was trying to beat it out which was working on the grass but it was fanning the flames that were already starting up the trunk. I had to tell them to stop and encouraged people to throw dirt on the trunk which thankfully worked

I’ve seen a tree that was struck by lighting. Didn’t see the lightning hit it, but I saw the tree both before and after. Shit basically exploded. A little burning, but a lot of splintered wood spread around the area, along with the branches that broke off laying below it.

Lighting struck the family’s Volvo when I was a kid & blew off both the windshield wipers. We were on our way to the mall near the house to go to Old Country Buffet for dinner & Pow! Wipers gone, my dad had the PTSD 1000 stare, my mom looked at me and my sister to see if we were OK in the back seat, and I sat there frozen looking at all the spots in my vision.

We went back home and had sandwiches.

I saw a RED bolt of lightning hit the ground about 30 feet away. It looked as thick and solid as a young tree sapling, and let out a mighty boom that sounded just as solid.

And it was red. Why was it red? I’ve wondered if it was just bright, and made my retina flare.

Was talking on a plugged-in phone when lightning hit the transformer across the street - I had just hung up and turned the phone away from my face a couple inches when it exploded and smoke went everywhere. Happened twice in the same spot in that house bc I didn’t learn my lesson the first time.

One of my neighbors at an apartment bldg was walking across the street right outside it and got hit and killed by lightning out of a clear blue sky.

Stood outside for an hour in a gorgeous lightning storm with no clouds and rain about 3 decades ago. All of a sudden a bunch of them gathered together into a ball and shot across the sky. Witnessing that, the feeder bands from Hurricane Katrina, and 4" long spiky hoarfrost ice are the coolest weather things I’ve seen.

Had enough lightning hit across the street from me in several places I’ve lived that all I can say is lightning is LOUD.

My apartment building in NYC was struck about 30 years ago. It blew about 10 bricks out of the parapet wall on the roof and, curiously, the intercom in the entrance played Disney Radio for 3 weeks.

When I was a kid my house was struck by lightning. It actually struck my bedroom but we were all downstairs watching TV at the time. It was a super loud bang and the power went out, and our dog started yelping like she was dying. We found the dog huddled in the back corner of the yard. She was fine, we think the noise just scared her. The outlet in my bedroom wall where it hit was destroyed, just some charred chunks of plastic and metal that had blown out of the wall and hit the side of my bed. I think we ended up having to replace all the outlets in my room. It knocked off the siding where it hit the outside of my bedroom wall, but i don’t think it even damaged it, we just hung it back up. The fire department came and made sure there were no hotspots, and they were able to trace the path. It hit my room, traveled through the house, and then out to the transformer on the street, which had blown up. Oddly though, I don’t think any of the electronics in the house were damaged, not even the stereo in my room right by where the lightning struck.

When I was a kid, I saw a strange yellowish-orange ball shoot across the yard in front of me. No one would believe me. A couple of years ago, I read the description of ball lightning. I think that must have been it.

Several years ago there was a strike somewhere in our neighborhood, close enough to damage several electronics in my house, mostly via the network. I lost my router, and the built-in ethernet port on my PC.

When I was in high school a friend and I were waiting outside the school when it started raining. Lightning struck the field across the street. I wanted to look around the area to see if I could find some fulgurite (sand that gets fused into glass by lightning) but never got a chance to.

I have several antennas in my backyard (amateur radio) and have to disconnect my radios whenever lightning gets close. I can tell when a storm is in the area through the radio even when the weather around me is clear. I really should get a lightning detector.

On a related note, some government entity in the US (I believe it’s either NOAA or the NWS) keeps a public database of lighting deaths.

Maybe 1/8th mile, saw it in the distance we were heading, made a turn and saw a small fire, guessing it’s where it hit. Buddy and I got out, stomped it out, never spoke about it again.

In school, my PE in the senior years was rowing. You basically gathered a crew with one experienced steering person, put the boat on the river, did the predefined round, put the boat away, and you could go home. Be there early, get you boat out quicker, row a bit faster, and you were done early.

One day, the teacher stopped boats going out shortly after we left because of the weather. We were at the farthest point when we noticed the thunderstorm. I can tell you, in a thunderstorm you don’t want to be the one high point in the middle of the river! So we ran the boat home, pulled it out of the water and carried it up the ramp to the boat house. When we were in the middle of the ramp, lighting struck the flag pole about 5-10m from the ramp. Light and sound effects simultaneously, and it was LOUD!

I don’t remember the moments after the impact, but we were told that no group ever had carried their boat up the ramp and into the building that fast.

In a tent 10m from a tree that got struck directly - some bark blew off it. I was bending over at the waist to pick something off the floor and involuntarily jumped immediately. My memory is that I jumped before I could have had time to react, so I think the electrical field made my muscles spasm which made me jump. Not sure if that’s possible or not though.