"I happened to be out in the back yard, watching a storm on Friday night (14/01/05) that appeared to be a few km away, (I live in Old Toongabbie, and
the storm appeared to be in Pendle Hill, or Greystanes, Australia). I set the camera's settings so that the shutter remained open for four seconds,
placed it on the back bumper of my car, hoping to get a few shots of lightning in the clouds a few kilometers away. There was no rain at all, and
stars could be seen over the north 1/3 of the sky, so I did not feel in danger in any way. Boy was I mistaken... DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE ELECTRICAL
STORMS - YOU COULD GET YOURSELF KILLED!
I clicked away a few times, and got nothing, and then clicked the button again, and within 0.5 seconds of me pressing the button, I had jumped at
least 2 metres in the air, as I heard a tremendously loud crack of thunder, and see this amazingly bright beam of electricity right in front of me. I
had then landed, grabbed the camera, and was inside the house within 2 seconds.
I did not realize just how lucky I was until I uploaded the picture to my computer, and saw a leader stroke that must have originated no more than 2
metres from where I was standing next to my car, under my carport. Had the main charge taken the leader near me, rather than the one it did, I would
be dead.
When lightning strikes, it actually comes up from the ground first (called a leader stroke), this stroke makes the air within it conductive, and once
it reaches the cloud, you have a complete circuit, and the bolt of lightning comes down from the cloud along the leader stroke. First leader to the
cloud wins, luckily mine did not.
I estimate that the main bolt was approximately 1.5- 2 metres in diameter, and struck something in the yard behind the shed that is located at the
back of the yard. That would have had an extremely large charge, and would have been extremely hot, hotter than the surface of the sun, at 5,500
degrees Celsius, it could have been around 30,000 degrees Celsius. Needless to say, I was buzzing for the rest of Friday night, due to the amount of
adrenaline going through me 'cause of how close it had come."
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