When I was a senior in the high school band, we got hit by a bolt during afternoon band practice. Killed one who took the major hit and the backwash hit me and four others of us including the director. No notice, no sound, just one small cloud overhead. One flash, then BLAM!!! followed by an instant downpour with 60 kids running for the building and 3-4 of us trying CPR on the boy who was hit. We got a heart beat, but he died later that evening. The lightning bolt followed the paint lines on the parking lot we were standing on and you could see the jagged lightning pattern on the ground for several years. It looked just what you see in the sky and very very narrow. Crazy to see it. They finally painted over it when someone in authority noticed it. Motorcycle related: the boy who died was my childhood friend and had introduced me to riding on his Honda Mini-Trail when we were 12.
Nothing much that's not alive scares me too badly when I'm outside and I've been outside a lot in my life, but lightning surely does. It's not just scary, it's deadly. Pulled into a McD's 10 miles from home about three weeks ago on a Saturday afternoon when riding to wait out a storm.
It's serious stuff. If you feel static you're about to be SOL. Get down.
