meh. was waiting for the earth-shattering kaboom.

The guy had a semi?

Not for long, I bet - shrunk to tadpole size.

There's no way this can be real. Obviously a hand-held camera, at highway speed and he's still able to turn the camera as the hit happens? Look at every other close-call video of lightning, and the first thing you see is the involuntary movement of the camera-person. Not a controlled pan. And yeah, the boom should have been much bigger for the proximity.

phake

RobotSpider: There's no way this can be real. Obviously a hand-held camera, at highway speed and he's still able to turn the camera as the hit happens? Look at every other close-call video of lightning, and the first thing you see is the involuntary movement of the camera-person. Not a controlled pan. And yeah, the boom should have been much bigger for the proximity.

And the pixels, don't forget the pixels

This is a risk truck drivers face regularly. You see, methamphetamine is not only a sympathomimetic drug, but it actually increases your static profile. The crotauns and spuntinos in your body react with the drug, causing your blood vessels to constrict and leading to an overabundance of these elements to be trapped within. You begin to create your own mini gravitational field. In the CNS, presynaptic reuptake of catecholamines (ie, dopamine, norepinephrine) is blocked, causing hyperstimulation at selected postsynaptic neuron receptors. This is bad. I'm fairly positive that what what captured in this short film, is a result of this.

Great_Milenko: meh. was waiting for the earth-shattering kaboom.

"Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom!"
- Marvin the Martian

This was about :12 too long, and still probably faked.

NICE VIDEOSHOP! no after image on camcorder = fake

prjindigo: NICE VIDEOSHOP! no after image on camcorder = fake

Also. Lightning originates from the ground to the sky, not sky to ground. the frames before the lightning also looked FAR brighter than ambient... Which, wouldnt happen.

RobotSpider: There's no way this can be real. Obviously a hand-held camera, at highway speed and he's still able to turn the camera as the hit happens? Look at every other close-call video of lightning, and the first thing you see is the involuntary movement of the camera-person. Not a controlled pan. And yeah, the boom should have been much bigger for the proximity.

Lightning strikes on vehicles are quite common. Getting them on video is a bit more rare, since only people interested in the weather bother with rolling tape during a thunderstorm, but if you spend enough time recording, you will eventually capture one (or just be very lucky).

As far as the pan, the camcorder operator doesn't react until after the strike.... they are most likely paying attention to the pavement they are traveling on, as opposed to oncoming traffic in the other lanes. So it is not hard to imagine that they would immediately point the camera to a bright bolt of electricity they just noticed off to the left. Most involuntary movements are caused by something you're not expecting, which is clearly not the case here.

Also, it is clear that you have never been anywhere close to a lightning bolt because there is no earth-shattering 'boom' when they strike that close; it's more of a whip cracking sound. The reason why is because the shock wave travels perpendicular to the lightning bolt, and considering most cloud-to-ground strikes are vertically oriented, the majority of the ionized air column will be located above your head. So in reality, the farther away you are, the more sound waves you are actually exposed to (of course, their energy will decrease exponentially with distance). Additionally, you would not hear much of a concussion on video inside a vehicle traveling at highway speeds anyway, even with the windows rolled down.

Why yes, I am a photographer and a storm chaser, thanks for asking.

liverpoolumd: prjindigo: NICE VIDEOSHOP! no after image on camcorder = fake

Also. Lightning originates from the ground to the sky, not sky to ground. the frames before the lightning also looked FAR brighter than ambient... Which, wouldnt happen.

Actually lightning originates at both sky and ground simultaneously. When the charge from the cloud meets the opposite (induced) charge from the ground you get a huge transfer of energy which excites the particles to the point where they luminesce.

I still call fake though. If you watch the flashes of light that coincide with the lightning, there is a point where everything is lit up by the lightning that isn't there anymore. Not only that, but it flashes dark and THEN light after the bolt is gone.

liverpoolumd: prjindigo: NICE VIDEOSHOP! no after image on camcorder = fake

Also. Lightning originates from the ground to the sky, not sky to ground. the frames before the lightning also looked FAR brighter than ambient... Which, wouldnt happen.

Wrong. CG strikes are initiated in the cloud, but the current travel from the ground up once the step leader finds its target (most of the time).

Anyway, you need to learn how auto iris works on camcorders.

JMarsh42: liverpoolumd: prjindigo: NICE VIDEOSHOP! no after image on camcorder = fake

Also. Lightning originates from the ground to the sky, not sky to ground. the frames before the lightning also looked FAR brighter than ambient... Which, wouldnt happen.

Actually lightning originates at both sky and ground simultaneously. When the charge from the cloud meets the opposite (induced) charge from the ground you get a huge transfer of energy which excites the particles to the point where they luminesce.

I still call fake though. If you watch the flashes of light that coincide with the lightning, there is a point where everything is lit up by the lightning that isn't there anymore. Not only that, but it flashes dark and THEN light after the bolt is gone.

Video cameras tend to display strange artifacts when dealing with high contrast images. That said, trying to determine the authenticity of a low-quality video shot with a consumer camcorder running at 30 frames a second is quite silly. I see no reason why anyone would fake this.

But I could be wrong, who knows. There are a lot of bored, unemployed people out there.

That looked like a cartoon lightning bolt.

EvilEgg: What was he filming in the first place?

I know several people who roll tape in thunderstorms in hopes of capturing something worthwhile. I'm one of them. We're weird like that.

PPL_Wannabe: Video cameras tend to display strange artifacts when dealing with high contrast images. That said, trying to determine the authenticity of a low-quality video shot with a consumer camcorder running at 30 frames a second is quite silly. I see no reason why anyone would fake this.

The one thing that made me think maybe it's fake is that the overall scene brightness never really changes. Every video I've ever seen of a close lightning strike (especially ones recorded with shiatty cameras, as this one appears to be), the strike is so bright that there's usually a few frames where the CCD is overwhelmed and everything's blown out...usually followed by a couple frames that are way too dark as it overcompensates the exposure. But on this one it never changes before, during, or after the strike.

JMarsh42: liverpoolumd: prjindigo: NICE VIDEOSHOP! no after image on camcorder = fake

Also. Lightning originates from the ground to the sky, not sky to ground. the frames before the lightning also looked FAR brighter than ambient... Which, wouldnt happen.

Actually lightning originates at both sky and ground simultaneously. When the charge from the cloud meets the opposite (induced) charge from the ground you get a huge transfer of energy which excites the particles to the point where they luminesce.

I still call fake though. If you watch the flashes of light that coincide with the lightning, there is a point where everything is lit up by the lightning that isn't there anymore. Not only that, but it flashes dark and THEN light after the bolt is gone.

The science is weak with you both.

From http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/primer/lightning/ltg_basics.html
CLOUD FLASHES
Cloud flashes sometimes have visible channels that extend out into the air around the storm (cloud-to-air or CA), but do not strike the ground. The term sheet lightning or intra-cloud lightning (IC) refers to lightning embedded within a cloud that lights up as a sheet of luminosity during the flash. A related term, heat lightning, is lightning or lightning-induced illumination that is too far away for thunder to be heard. Lightning can also travel from cloud-to-cloud (CC). Spider lightning refers to long, horizontally traveling flashes often seen on the underside of stratiform clouds.
CLOUD FLASHES

In-Cloud
Spider

There are also additional types of electrical discharges associated with thunderstorms called transient luminous events that occur high in the atmosphere. They are rarely observed visually and not well understood.

Well at least the camera was still and the operator was not yelling, "oh my god! oh my god! oh my god!".
/The internet is never happy

schief2: PPL_Wannabe: Video cameras tend to display strange artifacts when dealing with high contrast images. That said, trying to determine the authenticity of a low-quality video shot with a consumer camcorder running at 30 frames a second is quite silly. I see no reason why anyone would fake this.

The one thing that made me think maybe it's fake is that the overall scene brightness never really changes. Every video I've ever seen of a close lightning strike (especially ones recorded with shiatty cameras, as this one appears to be), the strike is so bright that there's usually a few frames where the CCD is overwhelmed and everything's blown out...usually followed by a couple frames that are way too dark as it overcompensates the exposure. But on this one it never changes before, during, or after the strike.

I think you may be on to something there.

Wait... where's the slo-mo replay? Apparently the person who made the video failed their YouTube Video Making class.

PPL_Wannabe: schief2: PPL_Wannabe: Video cameras tend to display strange artifacts when dealing with high contrast images. That said, trying to determine the authenticity of a low-quality video shot with a consumer camcorder running at 30 frames a second is quite silly. I see no reason why anyone would fake this.

The one thing that made me think maybe it's fake is that the overall scene brightness never really changes. Every video I've ever seen of a close lightning strike (especially ones recorded with shiatty cameras, as this one appears to be), the strike is so bright that there's usually a few frames where the CCD is overwhelmed and everything's blown out...usually followed by a couple frames that are way too dark as it overcompensates the exposure. But on this one it never changes before, during, or after the strike.

I think you may be on to something there.
FTFY.

I call bullshiat, looks fake as hell.

Everything on the internet is fake. I'm not really typing thi:::CARRIER SIGNAL LOST:::

It's fake I tell ya

JMarsh42: liverpoolumd: prjindigo: NICE VIDEOSHOP! no after image on camcorder = fake

Also. Lightning originates from the ground to the sky, not sky to ground. the frames before the lightning also looked FAR brighter than ambient... Which, wouldnt happen.

Actually lightning originates at both sky and ground simultaneously. When the charge from the cloud meets the opposite (induced) charge from the ground you get a huge transfer of energy which excites the particles to the point where they luminesce.

I still call fake though. If you watch the flashes of light that coincide with the lightning, there is a point where everything is lit up by the lightning that isn't there anymore. Not only that, but it flashes dark and THEN light after the bolt is gone.

Wait.. Wait... I was CONCURRING with the OP.

Critical Reading skills sir.

Compared to this, by the deafening crack and the 'holy shiat' shake from the cameraman, I'll say fake too.

How is it that the truck, driving on rubber tires, was grounded?

Schmoppo: This is a risk truck drivers face regularly. You see, methamphetamine is not only a sympathomimetic drug, but it actually increases your static profile. The crotauns and spuntinos in your body react with the drug, causing your blood vessels to constrict and leading to an overabundance of these elements to be trapped within. You begin to create your own mini gravitational field. In the CNS, presynaptic reuptake of catecholamines (ie, dopamine, norepinephrine) is blocked, causing hyperstimulation at selected postsynaptic neuron receptors. This is bad. I'm fairly positive that what what captured in this short film, is a result of this.

So you're saying if I do meth I'll have the power to control lightning? FARK YES!

/heads to the nearest dealer

Norad: Fake. Fake, fake, fake.

Fake.

Meth is real!!! So are truck-stop hookers, who, coincidentally, attract lightning as well.

That's real and it's spectacular.

mpfjr: How is it that the truck, driving on rubber tires, was grounded?

Lightning also strikes air to air. The potential difference is all that matters. Nothing has to be grounded. The truck is, relatively speaking, at the same voltage level as the ground even though it is not earthed. That is even ignoring the dirty wet (steal banded) tires which, like your gym shoes, are not much of an insulator. Lightning has certainly struck many people wearing rubber soled shoes. Eight inches of air gap is no insulation at all to 100,000+ volts. That's why high voltage lines have the long insulators (with ripples to increase creepage) holding them to the towers. A 15 KV electrostatic discharge jumps about 1/2 inch to free floating objects with no direct reference to ground (again, it's the difference in potential).

No reason to think it's fake, let alone proclaim it as fake. I'm guessing the undercarriage of the truck from tire to road and axles to road was lit up as well, though it is not visible in the video.

(I work with ESD, lightning, and high voltage testing occupationally - doesn't mean I'm right, but I'm not talking out my butt either. Though I should STFUAGBTW)

The thunder is too thundery and comes a bit late, I think. As my house has been struck by lightning three times, I know a close strike when I see/hear it.

TomServo24 2010-07-21 02:05:18 PM

Compared to this, by the deafening crack and the 'holy shiat' shake from the cameraman, I'll say fake too.

holy shiat that's scary as hell!!!!

did it hit the beach or the water?

TomServo24

Compared to this, by the deafening crack and the 'holy shiat' shake from the cameraman, I'll say fake too.

I'd say fulgerite!

/mine

I've been that close to a strike, and it sure as fark doesn't sound like dying embers.

I had no idea how close this lightening strike got to me until I checked out the slow-mo/screen caps.

What was that, across the street and into the trees?

Come to Arizona some time and you can have that happen as many times as you want.

studebaker hoch: What was that, across the street and into the trees?

Come to Arizona some time and you can have that happen as many times as you want.

I think maybe he was referring to what looks like a step leader coming up from the car in front of him.
Could be a reflection though. I can't tell.