Security Camera Captures What It’s Like to Almost Get Hit by Lightning

We’ve featured some amazing instances of lightning strikes being caught on camera in the past, but none quite like this. The video above is security camera footage that shows what it’s like to have a bolt of lightning strike the ground just a hop, skip, and a jump away.

The strike, which happens 4 seconds into the 22-second video, appears to hit a cluster of trees on the other side of the walkway. A bolt of lightning is seen in at least one of the frames, after which a number of shell-like explosions happen at the base of the trees.

The footage was captured at 3:06 in the afternoon on September 10th, 2013 during a thunderstorm in North Jackson, Tennessee. YouTube user Philip S owns the security camera, a Cisco PVC2300 camera that is set to records continuously 24/7. Philip says he stores the past 12 hours of footage at any given time.

Imagine the kind of shot that could have resulted had Philip been using a dedicated camera and a lightning trigger!