I worked at a metallurgical site one summer, on the electrical crew. There was a copper smelter on-site, which used an oil furnace, natural gas furnace and an electric furnace, to melt the ore, so there was some big voltage gear on-site. I remember one time, they were testing some high voltage insulators, using 80,000 volts! Aside from being almost struck by lightning one time (more on that in a minute), it's the closest I've come to seeing a 'lightning' bolt. The arc, jumped at least a foot or more and it had to be about 6 inches in diameter, give or take. Even with ear plugs, the sound was loud!
Almost being struck...long story short. Driving with a friend one day, heading over to his house. The skies were getting really dark...big storm rolling in. All of a sudden, I looked at my friend and said, 'uh-oh! He looked at me and said, 'what?' I said 'do you smell that?' He said, 'yes, what is it?' I said, 'ozone!' He said, 'what the hell is that and what does it men?' I looked at him and said, 'well, it means we're about to get hit by lightning or it's going to be really, really close, so hold on!'. Turned to pull into his driveway and there was an instantaneous flash of light and sound, that was absolutely deafening! The lightning struck the ground near the base of the neighbours tree, not more than 30 feet away!
Here's another one for you...not sure what it is with me an lightning! I was using a digital camera to shoot a video of a storm rolling in. Later when I played it back, frame-by-frame, saw this in the last frame. It happened so fast, I didn't see it when I was shooting the video. Notice, that the ring of the pool, is behind the 'bolt'! It's not actually lightning, it's called a leader. They shoot up from the ground around an area that is charged, then the bolt of lightning will pick one to complete the circuit. Thankfully, for the pool and me, it didn't pick that one!
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