I have had two very close experiences with lightning. The first time was in a neighbor’s yard. I was walking to the house from the barn when a sudden flash of orange light in front of me. Then a loud clap and that was it. I was a bit shaken but no other injuries.
Then about forty years later, my employee was driving the tractor to start plowing a field. I was walking along to set up stakes for a landing when I had a strange feeling. I bent over a bit and kept on walking when all of sudden everything was orange over my head. Then a loud clap and all was over. I was shaken. My employee who was in the tractor cab said the orange flash was all over me. Again I didn’t feel anything.
In baseball there are three strikes and you are out. Well I have had two with lightning and got by. I am very careful so there isn’t a third one. My luck may run out. I am told lightning can travel from a cloud to a target 10 miles away. I found a spot in a sunflower field where a lightning strike had hit. Six feet of sunflowers all around then a burn mark about 30 feet across. There was a Y shape cross in the soil. The cross was over two and a half inches wide and the Y about thirty six inches from end to end. The sunflowers were burned in the center to nothing. Fried to a crisp! It was a real wonder to see. The power of lightning. So be careful in thunder storm weather. Be safe and watchful.