Scary lightning strike caught on camera in Texas
Lightning strikes feet away from a man recording a storm in Texas.
Talk about a near-miss.
A man in Texas who was outside recording a thunderstorm on Wednesday as it rolled through his neighborhood was nearly hit when lightning struck several feet away from him.
The incident happened in Atascocita, located about 25 miles northwest of Houston.
2 KILLED BY LIGHTNING STRIKE WHILE CLEANING UP HURRICANE ISAIAS DEBRIS IN NORTH CAROLINA
Justin Howard told KTRK he was sitting outside watching the storm roll in when lightning struck a 50-foot tree in his front yard, right in front of him.
"The crazy thing, I got it caught on camera!" Howard said.
Lightning struck feet away from Justin Howard as it was sitting in the front of his home the Houston area on Wednesday. (Justin Howard/Facebook)
In the video, a fire ignites and the tree then splits in half.
Howard wasn't seriously hurt but told KTRK-TV he was sore.
"I was a pro fighter for years. I feel like I had a really hard sparring match, like my bones are achy. I just feel like, I feel punched. It was the craziest, weirdest feeling I've ever felt."
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While Howard escaped injury, two people in North Carolina were killed on Wednesday when they were cleaning storm debris from Hurricane Isaias.
Two men who survived Hurricane Isaias as it made landfall in North Carolina died on Wednesday after they were struck by lightning while cleaning storm debris, according to officials. (L. Todd Spencer/The Virginian-Pilot via AP)
Lighting typically strikes tall objects such as trees and skyscrapers because their tops are closer to the base of the storm cloud, according to the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL).
"However, this does not always mean tall objects will be struck. It all depends on where the charges accumulate," according to the agency. "Lightning can strike the ground in an open field even if the tree line is close by."
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When a tree is hit, water inside the tree trunk is turned into steam as energy from lightning heats the air anywhere from 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit to up to 60,000 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the NSSL.
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"If it gets under the bark into the surface moisture of the wood, the rapidly expanding steam can blast pieces of bark from the tree, and the wood along the path is often killed," the agency states.
Lightning strikes tree in Maine
Video filmed on July 8 by the Wales, Maine Fire Department shows how lightning sparked this fire inside of a tree during a recent storm.
John Jensenius, a lightning safety specialist with the National Lightning Safety Council, told Fox News he's found that people still believe lightning is attracted toward metal and that people also misjudge their distance from approaching storms, thinking that the lightning rise may be much further away than it actually is.
"The key is, if there's any threat at all, rumble of thunder or what looks like a threatening sky, you need to be able to get into a safe place very quickly," he said.
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