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nw NC | There have been times while I was milking that lightning struck nearby and all twelve cows in the parlor flinched. If I had my hand in contact with the steel stalls or a water pipe I felt it also. It was about the same as a weak electric fence. Another time I was feeding silage from the upright silos at the outdoor roof covered auger feed trough. Rain was falling in a deluge. I finished filling the trough and was sitting on the wooden shoulder rail of the trough waiting for the rain to slacken. A bolt of lightning struck the ground at a fence post about 40 feet from me. Cows were standing in the doorway of the large barn waiting to be allowed to go to the trough. The lightning strike was only 25 feet from them. They never flinched. Why did lightning strike the ground at the fence post and not either the lightning rods on the thirty foot high barn roof or the 50 foot silo roof (with lightning rods) sixty feet away?
Another time I was drilling sudan-sorghum before a thunder storm moved in . Clouds were moving away from my location, and all appeared well to finish . Suddenly the wind and clouds shifted toward me and it became obvious that rain was coming, and very quickly. I got to the edge of the field at trees which were about 100 feet from a small river. My location was about 150 feet lower elevation than the farm yard about 3/4 mile away. I decided that to make a run for home, being in the open on a Farmall H, would make me an easy target. I got off the tractor and crouched on my knees under the engine and transmission trying to keep from getting so wet and hoping to not be a target for a direct lightning strike. Lightning was every two seconds and nearby. Twice I felt a tingle run my lower legs from knees to feet. While under that tractor I was singing that old Gospel song " 'Til the Storm Passes By" . I am thankful He did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6JA6LPgNN0 | |
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I think I just got (indirectly) hit by lightning
