A frightening experience, thanks to nature !

[G#Gill]

Have you ever had a frightening experience thanks to nature? This is one of mine when I was playing in a band in the late 70's (yep, I can remember that far back ! :wah: )

The night of the thunder storm.

My parents were away on their annual holiday and my husband and I were asked to 'house sit' for them. Their house was attached to my Dad's chemist shop at a medium sized market town in Nottinghamshire, so Dad didn't want the place to be empty (because of the shop). We didn't mind at all, and my Dad had told us to use his petrol account at the local garage whenever we needed to top up with petrol. This, of course, was very useful as I often travelled miles going to gigs and Chris had to travel into Leicestershire each day to work, so we went through quite a bit of petrol over a 3 week period ! My sister used to travel back to Dad's house, from Lincoln where she was a police officer, for alternate weekends. She quite enjoyed baby-sitting my son when Chris had to work - both of them were working shifts and it worked quite well.

I had to travel to my gigs from Dad's place, which made several of the journeys quite a lot longer than when we were living at home. One of the Saturdays I had a gig at Stamford in Lincolnshire and that meant that John, our drummer had to travel the furthest of us - he lived at Narborough south of Leicestershire. From the market town, where I was staying during my parents' holiday I had to drive about 26 miles to Stamford and of course 26 miles back, which wasn't actually any further than travelling to gigs from home, so I was a little better off than John, in that regard !

I had no trouble travelling to the gig, and everybody seemed to have a very enjoyable evening - it was a private dinner/dance in one of the community halls in the town. We were very tired at the end of the gig and plodded through the packing away of our instruments, amplifiers and speakers. When we had piled all the gear by the back door, Brett opened it and reeled back in horror ! It was torrential rain, so heavy that we could hardly see our vehicles parked in the back yard about 20 yards away !!!

Loading the vehicles with our gear was just about the quickest we had ever been, and we were still almost soaked through, even wearing waterproofs ! Brett had received our fee so there was nothing to keep us there any more and we went our separate ways - John and Brett headed south west and I headed north west. My poor Morris 1000 estate was having great difficulty windscreen wiper wise as the rain was solid, pouring down in sheets. I was very glad to have 4 new radial tyres on my car.

I travelled up the A1 (The Great North Road - a Roman road) at a very sedate speed, trying to peer through my windscreen with my wipers even on 'fast wipe' , almost unable to keep the deluge away from the glass. My speed was only just over 30 mph and I was relieved that at that slow speed I was not holding anybody else up - all the other motorists (including lorry drivers) were obviously having similar trouble seeing through the rain, as nobody was trying to pass me. I eventually reached my turn off to Grantham and the A52 to Nottingham, and at this point the heavens opened even further and this time the torrential rain was accompanied by tremendous flashes of lightning followed with almost immediate crashing thunder. I could hear the crashing thunder above the sound of my car engine and the hammering of the rain on the metal roof of the car.

Now what was it that folk said about lightning and moving vehicles with rubber tyres? Hmmm not supposed to strike such things, but what about if the rubber tyres are soaking wet - water is a good conductor of electricity isn't it ? Apparently that would just make it easier for the lightning to earth, and so long as a person was not touching the external metal of the vehicle, that person would be alright. Well that's OK then.

The storm was now so bad that the lightning was constant and I could see fields and trees, hedges and distant farm buildings as if it was the middle of the day and not 2 a.m. in the middle of the night and pitch black! I reached a long straight of the A52 and carefully progressed down the sloping road. I was gripping the wheel hard and although I was tired, I was very alert. The sight of so much lightning all around me was absolutely amazing - I had never ever seen such concentrated lightning, and I had never heard so much constant thunder ! The noise was almost deafening and I was more than a little apprehensive !

Suddenly there was an enormous flash with an instant crash of thunder immediately to my left and I found myself on the wrong side of the road, my hands were still gripping the wheel with the road wheels still travelling in a straight and forward manner - the steering wheel had not moved ! My car had been moved by the power of the lightning which must have struck at the edge of the road on my left !!! I turned my steering wheel anti-clockwise and got back to the correct side of the road, slowing down even more ! Just at that moment, an HGV large truck came round the curve in the road at the bottom of the slope, moving steadily towards me - I could see what vehicle it was in the constant glow of lightning. If he had been 5 seconds sooner, I would probably not be here now, and I doubt whether anybody would have realised what really happened ! It was a very eerie night that night - there was no traffic on the road except me and then that HGV.

I managed to reach my Dad's place and shelter, without any further incidents, thank goodness. That had really shaken me up. By the time I drove into my Dad's yard to park up, the storm had eased quite a lot and I was able to get into the house without getting soaked again.



I think I may have posted this anecdote before, quite a while ago, but I don't suppose it matters too much as there are several new members on Forum Garden who have registered in the last couple of years ! :yh_whistl :yh_think

[LarsMac]

Great story. Yeah, I have been in a couple of storms like that. They can be both terrifying and glorious at the same time.

[G#Gill]

Yes I can distinctly remember being both frightened and amazed at such a tremendous display of nature in it's most emotional state ! I remember being severely shocked by being totally unable to control what happened to the car when that lightening struck so near. I remember checking the car the following day to see if there was any sign of being actually struck, but there were no marks at all on the vehicle that looked anything like a lightening strike ! :yh_nailbi

[Bruv]

Nothing quit as thrilling as that Gill, but yes one night I missed my train home and had to catch one that went close to my home, Mottingham rather than the one to Eltham Well Hall London.

As I came out of the station there was an almighty thunderstorm in progress. The station was in a valley with flats up a hill in front of me, I was terrified and thrilled at the close proximity of the storm, flashes of lightening with an immediate crack and then the rolling rumble louder than I had ever experienced.

It was a summer storm and was over in a few moments and I walked home without any further excitement.

Now that has reminded me of another time when I went to the Pictures on my own during school summer holidays, when I was about 10-11.

As I went home water was cascading off a railway embankment after a storm, and I wasn't able to cross the road due to the depth and speed of the water, my father was there wading through it and carried me through to safety.

Makes you feel pretty insignificant and respect the power of nature.

[G#Gill]

Where I live now, we have a terrific view across 3 counties because we live half way up a hill. In the valley below us, a few miles away, runs a river and if there is a thunder storm in the vicinity, it always seems to follow the line of this river. From our vantage point in our sitting room, we can watch the progress of a thunder storm, relentlessly heading through this valley. We see fabulous displays of lightning and watch the torrential rain as if it was a thick fog. Very dramatic, but we feel quite safe inside our house, looking through double glazed windows ! A different story if one gets caught outside in such thunder storms !