Second time for more feedback: Does anyone know anything about lightning?

Question

I was driving on the highway in a storm on a bridge yesterday and above my car I heard a crash and saw a flash of light all around me, simultaneously. a minute or two later my right arm started to tingle, this feeling traveled to my left arm down through my body, and then to my legs, there was nowhere to pull over, so I tried to concentrate on staying on the road. I knew I was experiencing some kind of electricity and I thought at the time my car had been struck. The heat and "burning" over my body got worse and I forced myself to raise my feet from the floor of the car and let go of the wheel. After this the semi-paralysis ebbed, but I still had limited mobility in my limbs. I shook for the next hour and was taken to the hospital to be checked out. I had no entrance or exit wounds, my car has no damage. my passenger side window was down about five inches through the whole event. What happened? If I was not struck why was I did I feel electricity go through me to such a degree?

I do not suffer from anxiety disorder, otherwise I would consider that as a possibility. I am also a psych major and abundantly aware of the minds power, but I know this was an experience totally outside of myself, not organic to my mind or body, if that makes any sense. My suspicion is that electricity entered the car through the open window, hence negating the Faraday effect. why thought did the effect of the electricity dissapate after I forced my legs and arms up away from everything? No one at the hospital could explain this to me... I just want to know what happened, the answers so far have been very helpful, thanks!

Answer 1

Yes you experienced the lightning, but were not injured because you were not perfectly grounded. Lightning does not originate in the clouds, but in the charges that are built up within a field or object. Your window was open so there was no insulation between you and the oppositely charged ions which had built in the storm.

Have you considered the possibility that the lightning did not enter, but rather left the car? More lightning bolts go from ground to sky than go from sky to earth. This was virtually unknown before the advent of high speed photography. It has little or nothing to do with metallic objects other than their conductivity.

You probably have a very electric personality.



; o )

Answer 2

That's a lot of info an a pretty frightening experience but one thhing that is pretty safe to say is that you wouldn't have been struck by lightning.

Inside a car or any metal shell is the safest place to be during a lightning storm, this is because the car or shell acts as a Faraday Cage, any lightning that hits is repelled by oppositely charged particles and is dissipated across the outer surface of the shell. Aircraft are regularly struck by lightning without any damage or electrocution of the passengers.

Perhaps you remember when you were at school the Van Der Graaf Generator - that metal ball with a belt spinning round and when you touched the ball your hair stood on end. That happens because of the positive and nagative electrical charges.

A similar thing happens in a lightning storm, the tops of the clouds become positively charged, the bottoms of the clouds become negatively charged and the ground beneath also becomes positively charged. If you happen to be in the right polace at the right time (or wrong place at the wrong time depending how you look at it) then you could have been in the heart of what was effectively an electrical force field.

This isn't particularly unusual and I've experienced it myself. Many people who experience this report symptoms similar to those that you experienced but rarely with such a profound impact. Usually it's just a tingling sensation and hair standing on end and not something that lasts for any length of time.

Clearly what affected you was something out of the ordinary. Even if the most intense of electrical storms I wouldn't have thought the effects would be so dramatic.

There are some aspects of electrical storms that aren't well understood and from time to time there are reports of unusual activity that can't be explained away based on what we know.

One interesting aspect concerns ball lightning. There have been several widely varying reports of this from seeminlg harmless balls of light suspended in mid air to violently exploding balls of light causing extensive damage. Those that have been captured on video are of the former variety and show a highly charged, small ball capable of passing through surfaces such as windows. There's one report of a lady being followed through her house by ball lightning and another of it appearing to read a newspaper over a man's shoulder - I'm not sure how credible these reports are.

Maybe you were exposed to one of these unusual events. Sorry I can't be more specific than that.

Answer 3

Well, a bunch of things probably happened to you all at once.

You probably were taken by surprise, that means a spike in heart rate, and an adrenaline rush. That may be what caused your tingling sensation a few minutes after the lightning. This could be purely biological from the raw surprise of unexpected bright light and lound noise. Then the "oh wow I think I got hit by lightning" realization kicks in and that can aggrevate the physiological reaction too.

Even without electricity, a lightning shot has a lot of energy, and you could expect feel a flash of heat over your face and exposed skin if it came down near you, even if you don't get shocked electrically. Like being too close to the barbecue when someone throws a pint of lighter fluid on it.

If you get hit with a strong *alternating* voltage directly, say 10000 volts, (which is probably significantly less than a lightning bolt) your muscles will spasm involuntarily and you won't have control over your movement. Your muscles will spasm and your limbs will react even before you feel any type of sensation, or even before you consciously know what's happening. An AC shock feels like a "buzzing" sensation in your nerve endings. There is serious throbbing pain after you get free of the AC current, but you recover motor control fairly quickly once the current is disconnected from you. Lightning is *direct* current, so you might be able to have some movement as the voltage is applied, but the raw heat energy of a direct lightning shot would burn your tissue internally.

Since you were in a car, you were probably pretty well protected from the electricity. If the shot hit your car, I'd expect the paint to be scorched on the body.

I knew a fellow who had a lightning strike come down near him while he was hiking up Half-Dome at Yosimite. He described a stunning headache after the shot hit.

Also, the metal body of your car probably had secondary currents induced on its surface if the bolt landed nearby. That may have been a source of voltage that affected you. If your steering wheel is a ring of metal, a current might have been induced in it, possibly an AC current of high voltage and brief duration as the lightning bolt struck then dissapated. This is my best guess for what got you.

The open window theoretically wouldn't make a difference in regards to the Faraday effect. Your Faraday effect protection comes from the metal parts of the car body, windows or not. But big voltages can make unusual things happen.

However, the ionization of the air might have been easier through the open window. Did you smell ozone? Was there a kind of metallic brassy smell?

Answer 4

Sounds to me like lightning struck very close to your car but not your car directly. Had lightning struck your car directly you probably wouldnt have been here to send that message. You should consider yourself very lucky not many people who have brushes like that with lightning live to tell about it. The reason you fealt the burning is because the lightning stuck so close to your car which also explains the shock that went through your body. There is nothing to do to make this feeling go away just dont panic. To sum it all up the lightning hit so close to your car it came in through the window and hit you.

Answer 5

Last night about 30 feet away from where Im relaxing. A lightning hit an iron roof. It hit my deaf ear. I feel a micro gravity made by that lightning. The sound of electricity is addicting.

Answer 6

I think it's not unheard of for a car to be hit by lightning. It sounds like that's what happened to you. I'm not competent, though, to speculate on why you experienced it in exactly the way you did. so I can't be of further help. but if I had to place a bet on the matter, I know where I'd put my money; lightning.

Answer 7

First thing, just because you are a psychology major does not mean you know all there is to know about the human mind, power or none.

Lightning Strikes and Cars
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/phy00/phy00197.htm

http://www.mos.org/sln/toe/cage.html

Answer 8

Is it possible the lighting hit the bridge and went through the whole bridge and everything that was on the bridge? I don't completely understand the electricity thing, but that's what my guess would be.

Answer 9

It sounds like you were electrocuted when your car became charged through lightning. That is one of my biggest fears. That had to be scary.

You're very fortunate. A lot of people who are struck by lightning end up with permanent disabilities. Fortunately for you, it wasn't a direct hit.