“It was nerve racking, it jolted me. I was kind-of shocked for a second. The umbrella flew out of my hand and I was kind-of disoriented and ran to my car and just tried to get out of harms way,” recounts Romulus McNeill after he found himself way too close to a cloud-to-ground lightning strike.
WeatherNation Meteorologist Meredith Garofalo spoke with Romulus about this video, showing an incredibly-close lightning strike that occurred on Thursday.
“We were having a teacher-parent conference night for back to school and it was 6:42 p.m. and every one had already left the building. I had reservations about going
outside because I didn’t want to get struck by lightning. And when I went outside, it just struck. And it was just kind-of shocking. It was nerve racking, it jolted me.
I was kind-of shocked for a second. The umbrella flew out of my hand and I was kind-of disoriented and ran to my car and just tried to get out of harms way,” describes Romulus.
Cloud-to-ground lightning strikes happen in an instant. Lightning can strike miles from the base or top of a thunderstorm cloud. Always remember, ‘When Thunder Roars, Head Indoors.’
Romulus continues his experience, “I felt like a static shock to my body. Like I said it hit on my right side and it was so quick, I just instantly got nervous and nerve racked. My principal said he
watched it through the inside of the building. He saw it from inside the building. It was thunder and lightning at the same time. What was crazy was that I saw the
lightning strike in front of me across the street by a store, but the lightning actually…I guess may have diverted or it could have been another lightning strike that
came right towards me.”
In terms of advice for folks reading/watching this story?
“I’m going to be super careful about going outside in any lightning period…or thunder!”
Our appreciation to Romulus for allowing us to share this weather story to help others truly understand the dangers of lightning!
For WeatherNation, Meteorologist Steve Glazier