I've had three close calls with
lightning. The first was during the summer of 1974. I was working on the Ballard estate
in Newmarket , cutting grass with the temperature around 90 degrees. It was very humid and the
visibility was about 1/2 mile in haze. We could hear thunder but couldn't see
any storms approaching. As the storm bore upon us I made a mad dash for shelter
in a tool house which was built on a concrete slab. I felt completely safe once
inside and so I leaned against the screen door with my left hand and enjoyed the
fireworks. It was quite a storm but I couldn't see much lightning because of the
heavy rain and haze. The rain came under the door and I was standing in a small
puddle. Without warning I was
flying through the air backwards about 8 feet. I hit the back of my head on the
floor and after a minute or so got up off the floor to discover that my whole
body felt like pins and needles, sort of like when your arm goes to sleep. The
bolt hit the roof above me and part of it traveled through my left arm and
through my body to the ground. My left armpit hurt for about a week after the
hit.
The second time was in St. Catharines, Ontario Canada in 1979. I was
working in the Control Tower this particular hot day when some convective storms
started popping up all around us. One storm formed just west of the airport and
then moved overhead. I walked to
the corner of the tower cab to get something when a bolt struck the tower
directly above my head not 10 feet away. It hit a lightning rod and ricocheted
to a transformer on a telephone pole about 150 feet away. One of the two
transformers blew and it looked like there were about 10 arc welders at work
with all the sparks flying.
The third and last time occurred on July 2,1997 in Sault Ste. Marie,
Canada. We had a line of thunderstorms moving through our area. I went outside
to enjoy some of the lightning. The storms were still west of me about 2 miles.
It hadn't started raining yet and I was leaning against my fence with my left
arm. My house was about 2 feet behind me. With no warning my hair stood up on
the back of my head and at the same time an arc of electricity came along the
top of my left arm and across my upper back and it made a loud snap noise. I hit
the ground real fast. The bolt hit about a 150 feet up the road and I figure it
must have been a streamer that came along the fence and across my arm and upper
back. Thank God the bolt didn't connect to the streamer off my back.
My family have had a number of close calls with lightning. My Mother experienced ball
lightning in the early 30's. She was in a washroom when ball lightning entered
through an opened vent in the ceiling. She backed away from the ball and bumped
into the door. A gust of wind blew
the bathroom door shut and at the same time the ball went out through the
window and a loud bang followed.
My Father was hit by lightning when he was plowing a field with a team of
horses. He told me that he woke up before the horses and had to kick them to
revive them. They all escaped without injury.
My Father's cousin wasn't so lucky. This cousin and his family were
loading potatoes on a trailer behind the tractor. His wife, daughter and son
were lifting the bushels up to their father who was standing on the trailer.
Some storms were moving in their direction and his wife was asking her husband
to quit before the storms came overhead. A bolt of lightning hit my Dad's cousin
on his belt buckle. The only thing that held him together was his backbone. His
midsection was gone. He survived the trip to the hospital and then died shortly
there after.
I still love a good storm and I hope to round out my experiences with a
tornado sighting which I haven't seen yet.