[AstralTraveller (David)]

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

Driving home from work during the storm, there were many strikes on either side of the road, a tree was hit to my right, it burst into flames.
Poor jjjnettie was terrified.

Strewth! Seeing a tree burst into flame is too close for me.

Some years ago I took my wife with me to a field site I was working on. It was a swamp with only low bushes on it. We got caught in a storm so my wife decided to stay under the trees but I headed out onto the swamp. One bolt landed pretty close (<500m) to my right; 20 seconds later another one landed on my left. I'm now the tallest thing for 200-300m. I decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and anyway you can't write up results if your toast, and beat a hasty retreat to the car.