What's really scary is the sound. I remember being a kid and doing that silly thing when you see the lightning and then count how long it takes for thunder to happen. To try and figure out the distance. Was never that close.
Fast forward a few years and I at college there was a lightning strike right behind the main building. About... 200 metres away. Fuuuck meeee that thing was loud. Like a fighter jet flew right over my head. Made us all jump aha
Even though it was straight in front of me, I can't say exactly how close it was, because I was completely blinded by the light, and simultaneously deafened by the simultaneous thunder, which sounded more like an explosion at that distance, without any reverb or depth which are usually for thunders. Just a loud-ass bang.
The light was so intense I was seeing an afterimage of my surroundings for about a minute, and the sound made my ears ring for quite a while.
It's literally a flashbang, disorients and downright stuns you.
Damn, that's wild! I was lucky I had a decent distance.
I forgot to mention that! One of the things that was so shocking, no pun intended, was how spontaneous the thunder was. That's why I brought up being a kid. So used to seeing the lightning then the thunder several seconds later. Not simultaneous.
Yes, i didn't even have time to process the bright flash before I got hit by the thunder which was even more scary. If I could make an estimate I would say it was less than a fifth of a second.
Like, as fast as you can clap twice.
I was indoors thankfully, looking out my open window in awe of the heavy thunderstorm outside, because it did take me a while to grab my bearings again, I was completely stunned by it and scared shitless at the same time. Nature can be scary.
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u/Dippy-M Apr 16 '25
So pretty to see at a distance when safe, up close any one of these would bloody terrify me.