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What was the scariest “We need to leave… now” gut feeling that you’ve ever experienced?
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this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2026
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I was hiking with my buddy and felt a bit uneasy. Like my skin felt fuzzy, it was hard to explain. I yelled "Run!" To a friend, we ran down the mountain and dodged getting hit by lightning a few seconds later.
That fuzzy uneasy feeling was the static before a strike 😅
Correct. Although it feels different than just static. It feels like you are touching pillow filling and static. It's hard to describe.
You just got to play lightning rod.
People think lightning rods are meant to attract lightning, but that is incorrect. Buildings are often covered with a whole bunch of little 1 foot copper spikes. The idea is a multipoint spray of electrons from the ground up to a charged cloud to balance the charge and reduce the chance of a strike.
During a storm, you can sometimes hear them making a hissing sound as they work.
When lightning is about to strike, anything kind of tall and conductive will do the same. If you feel that static charge building up on you, get your ass as flat as you can. You cannot predict where the strike is going to hit, so running is silly--you might well run toward a strike. Just lay flat and stay away from tall stuff. Don't be the tallest thing either.
I believe youre supposed to crouch with your feet pressed together and your arms wrapped around your knees. This reduces contact with the ground and pressing the feet together reduces risk of the charge going up one leg and down the other.
When you lay down you are increasing the potential of the strike from one end of your body to the other.
Correct. What you're trying to do is make sure the strike doesn't go through your heart where you will almost certainly die. Your body can survive a lot, as long as your major organs don't get fried.
yeah, if i understand it right the majority of the damage from a lightning strike is that you get a burn where the bolt goes. if it goes through your heart, your heart gets one hell of a burn. then you have to heal a burn from the inside out, which your body is not used to doing
The burns are one part, but with the heat, it’s the electrical current you need to avoid, since it can not only stop your heat, but cause arrhythmia which can kill your hours later if you don’t get to a hospital.
I did get down when I felt it. I heard stories online of how lightning felt before it hit. I just never thought it would happen to me. We were almost at the top of the cliff. I stopped to take some pictures. So, when we got away. We decreased in elevation quickly, probably 15 feet in under 20 seconds? Then we got to the tree line.
To me it felt like walking through invisible spiderwebs, strike was 50 feet away seconds later.
That's a perfect description actually.
I was on a small hill when it started rumbling, we all felt the static in our hair. We quickly went down the hill.
Where did it strike then?
If I had to guess, about 50-75 feet from where we were standing. There was some kind of radio tower near us. We didn't turn around to figure it out. We ran.
Whew. Sounds loud as hell
Ironically, I don't remember it being too loud. I do remember running down a mountain as fast as I could. I think I was just hyper focused on that though.
Sounds possible. Memory can be weird like that
When its very close it just sounds like a snap. I think because it overloads the eardrums.
Unless it hits a tree, and the tree explodes. That happened to me last week right outside my house. I've never heard anything quite as loud nor with such a large thump in my body. Felt a bit like my bell got rung for the rest of the day.
That would probably make sense. I genuinely remember it being loud, but not by hearing it, more of feeling it. You feel it in your lungs. My guess is due to the rapid pressure change. I was a bit too focused on getting off of the cliff/mountain we were at.
the earth, somewhere ;-)
I had a similar experience once. Lightning is crazy, man