My cousin and his friend were killed at age 33 flipping burgers at a wild game barbecue. No kidding. Does that count? Lightning hit his buddy's umbrella, through him and to the flipper in my cousins hand. Fried to a crisp, both of them. I hate lightning and have had some MAJOR strikes way too close while elk hunting.
I don't think it's possible to have a good lightning story. I was cutting grass one summer back when I was a kid. The rain clouds were a few miles away and I could see lightning striking. All of a sudden, I saw a flash of light and heard the boom. I hit the brakes on the tractor, jumped off and took off running. By that time, the strike was already over. I remember the static electricity in the air. A tree about 500 feet had been struck and was on fire. Beware when you see lightning off in the distance. It can strike miles away from the storm.
I had a bolt land 20 yards to the right of me while packing a ham out during a hail storm in WY in 2013. Scared the crap out of me. Sounded like an explosion.
Killed my best bull after a ferocious storm (HEAVY rain and lightning) caught me 1.8 miles from camp at around 10,500 feet. I had to fight some grouse from under this very round evergreen that had ample lower limbs. Scared the CRAP out of me! As soon as the storm blew through, I intercepted a decent 5x5 and arrowed him without even knowing what hit him. Watching that bull fall in front of me at 50-60 yards was something I'll never forget... well, I guess I'll never forget that lightning either. Hair raising for sure. I did apologize to the grouse for kicking them out of their shelter. :)
Had a strike close once as a kid. Got caught above timberline in a bad one once and my aluminum arrows were humming, hair sticking straight up and strong ozone smell. Saw a couple strikes on the other side of the valley. Ditched my bow and found a depression to sit in. Felt pretty small.
Caught at treeline on Co. On the edge of a large ravine. Hunkered under a medium sized tree while I watched lightening come up from below me a couple hundred feet away. Saw a tree get hit in that one.
Wanted to dig a hole for about an hour on that one!!
I had just got down out of my treestand as an big storm was coming in. I got hailed on and was in the process of putting on my raingear at the base ofd the stand. for some reason I looked at the steel ladder stand and decided I was too close and move about 20 yards away. just as I looked back a lighting bolt hit it. it scared me so bad and it was so loud I ran as hard as I could! I took this picture the next day and posted it here a week later.
A buddy hit a bull in SW Colorado one evening and we waited till the next morning to look for it. Of course it rained all night and was still raining the next morning as well. We found a bed with blood in it , but no blood trail so we started grid searching for his bull. Another storm rolled in over the mountain and the lightning was unbelievable! We had several strikes within a few hundred yards of us. I don't know if there's any good place to hunker down on the mountain. I was sure relieved after that storm rolled thru! BTW, we did find my buddy's bull shortly after the storm rolled out.
Retired from electric utility, close calls no good stories though. Don't care for the suphur like taste that is left in your mouth after a close strike either. Hunted in Colorado when 2 people died from lighting strikes in the same area, a guide and a hunter but they were not hunting together. GotBowAz that's was close!
Damn GotBow, you must live a charmed life ! My best friend and a guy he was fishing with were killed in a bass boat trying to get off Lake Fork several years ago. If I hadn't had to work that Saturday, I would have been in that boat, and we would both be alive today. I wouldn't have chanced it as long as he did. Several times I berated him into leaving when a storm was approaching when we were fishing together in his boat. If we were in mine, I would just tell him to put stuff up, we're leaving. I've had three very close calls with lightning and it scares the hell out of me !
Got caught in a hail storm in 1980 in Ohio driving a 1980 chevette.on freeway,and beat car bad.3,000.00 damage.,also had lightning hit a capehart stereo in the apartment,and fried it.storms still spook me.
Scouting up near timberline last summer when a terrific hailstorm rolled in behind the ridge I was on. No thunder or lightning until it snuck up on me, then all hell broke loose. I hid under a gnarly pine tree while lightning struck all around, then decided I needed to get off that ridge fast.
Went back a week later to check my trail cam and the tree had literally exploded. Chunks were blown 30 yards in every direction. I have photos on my camera but it's at the cabin.
My brothers and I were loading cattle into a stock trailer from a steel panel corral. I was standing on a panel punching cattle to get the last of them in the trailer when lightning struck about 100 yards down the fence line. Knocked me off the fence and I landed on my ass, almost got stomped by stampeding cattle. You could smell burned hair in the air. Lightning is the one thing that scares me!
If you spend time outdoors, you should have lightening stories to tell.
Many years ago, a group of us were glissading on the east side of the continental divide in Colorado. A storm we couldn't see, approached from the west. I suddenly noticed that everyone's hair was standing straight out. There was no where to go on the open snow field, so I had everyone crouch down, and hoped for the best. The static build up dissipated with no apparent strike in the area, and we got out of there.
Another time, a friend and I were riding horses in to pack out my elk. It was late morning with not a cloud in the sky. Without warning, a bolt of lightning hit a tree a couple hundred yards away.
I've been within a few hundred yards of lightning strikes more than once.
While not really a lightning strike, it wasn't too unusual to have static discharges off the nose of jets. Looks pretty cool! Again not a lightning strike, but here is a photo of St. Elmo's Fire dancing on the windscreen of a B727 I was flying.
My buddy and I were hunkered down. During the fury, one hit close. When the rain let up, we stood up and off to the side 150 yards or so was a smoldering tree.
Non hunting
In the boat, middle of lake. Storm was miles off. My forearm was resting on outboard motor. Felt like needles in my arm. I cast my jig out. The lure sank but monofilament went straight up into the air. (I actually could feed line skyward. Pulled the rod back (graphite) and it was as if you pulled socks out of the dryer. (Static) you could hear the buzzing sound.
All of this happened within less than 30 seconds.
I fired up the motor, went full throttle ASAP, and hit nearest shore line.
Working in the radio communications field, I have studied lightning. For every lightning strike, there are several hundred potential strike locations nearby. I personally have had two other close calls. (Static/buzzing) I hate it.
I grew up on blueberry barrens on a mountain. Saw many strikes and had my pickup hit while driving. The hood was covered with purple sparkles when it hit. One strike hit a buried barbed wire fence, traveled to our well, jumped to the water pipe, and struck my father's foreman on the elbow. We were in the cellar drinking hard cidar we had put up in a barrel. It knocked him cold. He was hammered and when he woke up, claimed he saw God and swore off drinking.....for two days.
My neighbor was killed in his driveway exactly a year ago today. Yesterday my other neighbor on the other side had their cabin struck, blew shingles off the roof. I'm staying hunkered-down.
Place here in sw Colorado called The Window...open saddle way above treeline. Skeletal remains of the dead horses that's been struck by lightening still tied together. Lightening strikes without a cloud in the sky. You ride through The Window praying and feeling the hair on your neck stand up. Not a very fun place to ride through...
An archery shop owner in Oklahoma where I'm from was struck with his partner in New Mexico on an elk hunt 10 or 12 years ago. Partner lived but he did not. Good dude lost.
Been quite a few times we hung our bows in a tree and moved away from that spot as lightning was popping all around
Non Hunting
Was spending a weekend at a mtn cabin and a storm came thru. Plenty of rain and then lightning. Then a bolt struck so close the electricity danced across the ground, lacing thru the puddles. That will get your attention.
My dad told me when he was a kid, he and my grandpa were milking cows by hand one evening back on the homestead. [Thats when the cows stood in a stanchion while being milked] A storm was raging outside and lightning hit the barn and killed the cow between my dad and grandpa.
My son and I were in my Cabela's 6 man tent and there were so many strikes so close that it was like a light was on in the tent, constant booming. I made him get out of his sleeping bag and we got into the truck. Another time when we were sheep hunting on top of the mountains, of course, and we saw a storm coming our way which had strikes going on like crazy. We took off running, he was faster than me, and just as I was going to start down the mountain to our vehicle a bolt hit across the valley on the other mountain top which was not that far away. It was informative to see the strike. Big wide white bolt probably 50 yards across and, when it was 100-200 yards from the ground it turned to a red color as it ground out. The explosion sound was instant and deafening. My son was at the vehicle but couldn't get in because I had the keys. NEVER AGAIN!!!
Greg's post made me fember this: Back in the seventies when I was running a dozer in the oilfield, one of the guys I worked for had 17 black Angus cows killed by lightning. They all herded up in a fence corner during a storm and lightning struck the fence. We dug a big pit and buried them.
Another time, in the late sixties, I was running a scraper on a road job. Big thunderstorm came up and I parked it and was running to my pickup. ( I could actually run back then ). It was raining big time and the water was probably an inch or two deep on the grassy area I was on. Lightning struck maybe fifty yards from me and I was knocked off my feet by a hot burst of wind, sliding on the grass like a slip'n slide. Truck doors opened up, I jumped up, truck doors closed ! I guess they figured if I could still run there wasn't much wrong with me ! :-). In those days,crap like that didn't bother me, but a bunch of years later, I wonder why I'm still alive.
12+ years ago I was mule deer hunting south of Holy Cross ... going across a 12,000' saddle and was caught in a fast storm, you could feel the electricity.
I've been scared ever since.
We were on the MO river near St Charles Sunday evening and in a 24' aluminum boat and it blew up quick - and the lightening was bad and I was reduced to a spineless blob. Scares me to death. In a tent I don't feel so vulnerable, but caught out in it? Get down next to a rock away from tree's or something is best I could do I guess.
I own a auto service center. About once a year I get a car towed in that got hit by lighting. Most where on concrete roads/ bridges when hit. Most cars are a total loss. Just about everything electronic is fryed.
Lou, been in that fetal position a time or two. You don't want be the tallest thing around or under the tallest tree. Rocks and caves are not a good place to be. Above treeline is not good. Pretty much not good all the way around.
Easy to say drop into the timber but there is usually not much warning if you are up high.
Do what you can, stay away from you aluminum bow and try to drop altitude is all you can do.
All of my scary lightening events have happened in Colorado. I think they lead the country in lightening strikes? Course I hunted a lot around lightening peak. Go figure??
When I was growing up, we had a giant white pine right next to our house, which was about 25 feet from my upstairs bedroom. The previous owners had put a wire from the top of it to a ground rod.
One night while sleeping ( I was probably 11 or 12 years old) all of the sudden I heard a REALLY loud buzzing noise, with blinding light and an explosion all at the same time. Out of bed, down the stairs, down the basement stairs and into a corner scared to death.
About the same as Zbarebow: Another time in the late 70's, my buddy and I were fishing and watching an approaching storm - catching fish, so we pushed our luck. When he cast his line out the plug went into the water but the line stayed air born. That's enough and off to the nearest shore.
A few years ago we were at about 9,500 feet elk hunting. We were back at camp, it was really dry and we needed moisture bad. It was about an hour after dark and we were trying to film a storm coming our way. It was barely sprinkling and my partner looked up and said "is this the best you can do". He didn't even get the sentence finished and there was a blinding light with a deafening boom when lightening hit just a couple hundred yards from our tent.
Well I'm scared of lightening and I dove head first into the tent and landed on the floor, skinning up my nose pretty good. When I quit shaking I joined them in the laughter. I also made sure he never looked skyward and made a challenge again.
"...precautions to take if caught in a lightning storm?"
Depends on the situation. If you're hunting in a fairly generic forest, might as well keep on hunting, or find shelter in a drier spot. One place is about as good as another. Caught in the open; what Jaquomo said, except maybe the praying part. If there was anyone listening, it doesn't make much sense to me to pray to the one who called the fury down on you to begin with. ;-)
Don't be the highest point. Or huddle near the highest points. (Tall trees) If above treeline, get into trees asap. scrubby trees down the hillside.Get in a ball and stay stay low. Fetal position laying down is best.
Don't ever camp on ridge tops if you expect lightning. Tent poles and high peaks are a bad combo.
Never hit but been knocked down twice. First one was an 18 year old kid on the farm. The irrigation well pumps would shut off when the strikes were fairly close, huge 440 volt pumps, about 6 of them. You had to start them manually with a big lever. Push the lever forward until the pump picked up enough speed and then in one motion pull the lever back into the running position and locked in. If you went too soon it wouldn't lock back and you had to start the sequence over again.
My buddy and I were driving around after it looked like the storm blew through and restarting the pumps, most were in little sheds, but this one was outside and the starter mounted to the power pole. Pushed lever forward, motor coming up to speed and wham! I was on my back, cover had blown off the starter box and the pole was smoking! Creosote was liquefied and running down the sides of the pole. I looked around, my buddy was already in the truck, had it started and turning around. I was in it in a second and we were flying down the farm road. I was wearing hip boots, don't know if that made any difference or not. I know it didn't hurt......
Second one in ID a few years ago elk hunting, storm came in, huge hailstones, hooking it up to get back to camp. Coming off a ridge, down into a bench most of the way down and wham, the world went white, next I knew I was face down in the grass and don't know how I got there. Couldn't see much for a bit. Don't even remember hearing a boom, but my ears were ringing hard. Unique smells/taste for sure.
Neither time was I particularly worried about the lightning, it was hitting here and there but half mile and more away. Then... boom. Been out in storms where I was really worried.... OK, scared.... makes you feel tiny and helpless. I wouldn't push it for sure..... kills way more hunters than any wild animal
Z, what we were taught when I was a Park Ranger was to minimize contact with the ground to minimize physical damage from a nearby ground strike. Squatting on the balls of the feet was the technique we were taught. Sometimes I've felt like curling into the fetal position though...
Wow! Brutal stories, guys. Thanks for sharing! Awesome photo Ziek!
I have a buddy who was hit twice, or at least was close enough to get zapped good while on wilderness fires. He's not doing it anymore.
I was out on an open mesa yesterday on a jog, and a storm came in pretty quick. Only took one good strike across the canyon to make the jog turn into a run!
Hunting elk I have only had one sketchy encounter hustled off a ridge top into a canyon and huddled under some bushes during a downpour. Lightning started hitting the ridge I was on. The moment the storm cleared for a little I hoofed it out of the area. Was glad I went when I did because the storm got real bad fast after getting to my car.
Prior to that I shot at a bull on top of a ridge, then couldn't find any sign of a hit, or my arrow. Spent a few hours grinding and crawling looking for any blood. Then a storm started coming in. I opted to just climb down rather than chance it. Have pictures of the bull, so at least he lived. Haha!
I grew up in a log cabin. Heated with a wood stove. Turned off the shower one day and reached for a towel. The cabin shook. Sounded like an explosion. I heard the front door open and my dad running all through the house. By the time I walked out of the bath room door he was coming back down the stairs in what looked like a smoke filled house to me. He was outside the house and saw the lightning blow our chimney apart. Rained down on vehicles up to fifty yards away. As a longtime volunteer fireman he ran through the house looking for fires but found none. What I thought was smoke was ash from the lightening blowing the ash pit door open with the blast. The close part is that the lightning grounded in the well. Virtually Welded the pump into a mass of useless metal... and I turned off the water about two seconds before the strike. Close? Maybe. Not sure if it would have made that jump or not!!
I spent the night at a hospital with a girlfriend that got struck in the parking lot on her way to see me at a restaurant/bar. She got through it. Her car didn't. Guess it was an omen for her... never really heard from her again after that!!!
I stand corrected. The purpose behind crouching is not having your head be the highest point. And if there is a nearby strike, the contact between the balls of your feet keep the current from transversing across your heart or brain. With that being said, don't lean or hang on a nearby tree.
A friend if mine was in a HS football game back in the 1970's when lightening struck the field. Killed one player on the field. Blew his shoes off.
Back in the late 80's I was on my motorcycle and waiting for a friend to come home. It was raining with no thunder or lightening so I moved under a big maple tree. About 5 minutes later the hair on my head (back when I had hair) stood up and lightening struck a tree about 30-40 yards away. Smoke and flames and a branch broke off. I moved back out from under the tree and into the rain...
My brother and I drove to Backus, Minnesota to pick up my Scamp trailer. Since I had never seen the Dakotas and Midwest, we circled those on the way home to NH. Coming through Illinois we encountered a huge thunderstorm with brutal lightning and a funnel cloud that tore up a field beside the road. We parked my truck and basically prayed. When we drove into the next town, 3 houses were on fire. We have big snows up here on the border of Northern NH and cold, but there is no way I would want to live in those flatlands. They sky was so dark you needed headlights. I will stick with our mountains, at least we have places to hide when nature cuts loose. As a volunteer firefighter/EMT, I responded to a fatality involving lightning on Umbagog Lake years ago. Two guys in a canoe were getting ashore in a bad storm. As they reached shore, the lead guy reached for a branch on a tree just as lightning hit it. He died instantly and his buddy was hit as well but survived with bad burns. We couldn't figure out where the bolt exited his body until the coroner showed us. It hit his hand, traveled through his digestive tract, and right out his anus to hit his buddy. His butt was fried and every hair on it was burned. The coroner told us that lightning does that most times and basically fries your guts.
I was up above timberline witha buddy. It was overcast but no signs of lighting.
I was about 1000 feet higher than he was. I was looking down at him and watched a giant lighting bolt literally blast him! Smoke came off his body and and he fell back like a stiffboard.
I ran down there and found his eyes rolled up in his head and blue. He was dead!
Some cpr and a short time later he was back to life. The lightning bolt hit him in the head and went down his body and out his foot. His shoes were blown off in half with his socks melted to his leg. He had some Munro burns. But lived and recovered 100%
One was back in the 80's. I snuck in a bowhunt after school sometime around mid October. It was a drizzly day and I thought conditions were prime. I got out to my spot and immediately had two bucks walk right up to me. I was unable to draw and got busted. Just about that time I heard thunder and it kept getting closer. I remember pushing it hoping it would pass. The strikes kept getting closer so I decided to leave the woods and head back to my car. I just crossed a fence and was pondering whether I should cross the open field or not. At that moment the fence started crackling. I threw my bow and hit the ground. Lightning struck a big dead tree within 100 yards of me. Scared the heck out of me.
The second scary incident happened while fishing. I skipped a college class to get in a day of walleye fishing. I headed to my folks cabin and took my dad's boat out. They were on vacation so I didn't have a chance to talk to them. The motor started fine and I never really got it on plane as the spots were close by. Over the course I worked myself out to the middle of the lake to fish a rock hump. The bite was on as a thunderstorm was approaching. It didn't take long and the lightning strikes were within a couple of miles. Time to fire up the motor and race back to the cabin. Wrong. The motor started but would only go trolling speed. Lightning struck all around the shoreline. There I was in the middle of the lake and all I could do was putt my way back. I do remember crouching down in the boat like that would help. I still can't believe I didn't get struck. Later I talked to my dad and he said that he had to get the motor in to the shop as it wasn't working right LOL.
Pic is not complete though. It doesn't show him crying or kissing his @ss goodbye.
On a serious note, many folks think of lightning as a single bolt. The reality is generally lightning has a path that contains the majority of the energy, but near the ground the strike will have multiple feeders from main bolt. Many of them reaching a significant distance away. Folks generally don't survive if they are hit by main bolt. (The current flow will heat body parts to boiling point and stuff explodes. Not pretty) That is why you see trees explode when hit. The water content within the trunk of the tree reaches boiling point in a fraction of a second and rapid expansion occurs.
Have any of you camped above treeline during a bad storm? I see so many camp pictures on barren ridges and just picture getting bombed with wind and lightning haha
These certainly are some hair raising stories! Lightning is no joke!
My biggest scare came fishing a few years ago. I was slaying the walleyes with the sudden pressure drop of an approaching storm and not paying close enough attention to my surroundings. I held up my graphite rod to make a cast and it started buzzing like a single lady during her alone time. I suddenly realized it was from the electricity in the air. I dropped my rod and went for the truck. No sooner had I started moving when lightning hit very close to where I had been and started popping all around me. Scared the bejeezus out of me. Never again!
A storm was blowing in when I was playing golf. Blue skies above and I was debating with a buddy if we could get all 18 holes in before the rain got to us. Was a wall of dark clouds but perhaps 5 miles to our west. I felt the hair raise up on my arm as if a helium balloon was about to touch. A split second later "crack" and a tree at the edge of the fairway was whacked and splintered. That lightning traveled almost horizontal for miles beyond the clouds.
I have been in a couple of nasty late afternoon lightning events near the Continental Divide in CO in late September and nowhere to hide but lay flat when are above tree line. Beautiful county and gorgeous time of year though those frequent storms scare me and make me question my life choices.
A few people here had experience with static or hair rising on their arms or head. I didn't get that, or I dont remember it but I also had my Helly Hansons rain gear top on and was fighting to get the pants on when I decided I best move away from my stand. To this day when I see a flash and hear the crack I jump involuntarily. Im trying to work on that as I scared the crap out of my wife a couple of times when I ducked! LOL ... Prior to this experience I really never gave lighting much thought when in the field.
I have had the line of my fishing pole go toward the sky twice. Both times a storm had come off lake MI and over the dunes and I was unable to see its approach. One other time I was on top of a large peak and above some rock that was to steep to go down through. Storm started coming in and wind picked up. I hauled @## and got around the rock and down just in time and from 1k foot below watched the lightning hit the very area I was just standing in about 6-8 times. It was an eye opener for me and now I am very cautious when I am up on top or close. Always make sure you can drop elevation. The steep rocks almost trapped me up there and I would have been in real trouble had I not started my efforts to drop elevation when I did. I fear lightning more than anything else when in the high country. Indiscriminate unpredictable killer.
My dad is sick right now so I'm going to post our story. We have gone bow hunting on opening day together since I was six years old. One year it was almost raining but we went anyway. We had garbage bags over us to keep us dry. We poked our heads through the middle and our arms through the corners. We got to the spot and heard thunder. There was a doe in the field behind us and my dad needed to kill a doe before he was allowed to hunt for a buck. It was thundering and lightning but we were under some trees. Not long after we got to our spot, lightening hit the tree right across the creek from us. I saw I perfectly. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen and also the scariest. We left right then. Collin
Elkstabber's link is what you should do if caught in a lightning storm. One thing I think they could have emphasized more in the link, is to try to find a depression of some sort or better yet a bowl or valley bottom to do that. not always possible, but that's ideal. I love it when you hear safety advise to go indoors if you think a storm is approaching; thanks for that, I'm 20+ miles from the nearest building! As others have stated lightning can strike well ahead of "the storm"; if you can hear the thunder, you're in the potential strike zone. One other thing to be mindful of, is if you're near a power line the chance of a strike is much higher. The entire purpose of the top "shield" wire is basically to attract lightning strikes, so it hits that instead of the primary conductors and sends the current to the ground (there happens to be a transmission line in the area I elk hunt).
I've been in a handful of situations where you see flash and hear boom basically simultaneously. I don't know where they hit, or if they did, but I can tell you they were close and it was scary! Related to sound, I often hear 1 second is one mile away which is not true. The speed of sound is 340 meters per second at sea level and slightly slower at higher elevations, so at say 10,000' even 5 seconds between flash and hearing the thunder is a little less than a mile away.
My better half and I were in a huge basin in Wyoming we got caught in a T storm! the area we was in was a burn from the previous year, well the storm stalled over us so we decided to hike out rifles and packs on back, she wanted to take cover, I said let's get out ta here, their really was not much cover and the cover was torched making me think lightning liked this place we were in, we made it out but I wasn't positive at that time what was gonna happen, and she to this day is not a fan . What is the best precaution out west!?
I was in a treestand on a beautiful sunny day, late september, and all of the sudden it got really dark. I could hear thunder in the distance so I climbed down and waited it out. The sun came back out and I climbed back up. Apparently that was the eye of the storm, about 15 minutes later it was dark and stormy again. Lots of lightning. I remember looking up and saying, "god, if you want me to get down, give me a sign". Those words no sooner than crossed my lips when a huge bolt hit really close. Shook my tree like crazy. Lets just say that I wasted no time in getting down.
Not sure if any of you followed Randy's (bigfin) semi live bear hunt on Youtube but he got into some bad storms. He made a short little video on what to do when out hiking/hunting during a lightning storm. Might help someone do the right thing this fall.
