WEBVTT - Ep. 489: Struck by Lightning 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:08.920 There are three hundred billion strikes of lightning in the 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:13.800 atmosphere of planet Earth each year, equaling one hundred strikes 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:18.080 of lightning per second. And I've been long fascinated by 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:23.920 the display of power of natural systems, giant waves, raging rivers, 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:28.280 violent storms, but there is one that is the definition 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:31.840 of flashy. When it comes to natural stuff that happens, 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:37.320 the visual and auditory display of lightning's unhaltered power is unmatched. 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:41.880 It's mysterious, far beyond the control of man, yet almost 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:47.640 fully understood by science, predictable to a degree, inflicting instantaneous 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:51.600 and oddly specific justice on whatever it strikes. All the 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:56.520 while it's motivation, meaning why it strikes and where it does, 0:00:56.760 --> 0:01:04.040 is completely untrackable. Therein lies man's timeless fascination and fear 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:08.160 of lightning. We're going to hear two stories of people 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:12.280 struck by lightning, a hunter and a farmer, and it 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:15.520 will literally put the fear of God in you did meet, 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:18.920 and we're going to have a true nerd out talk 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:24.120 about lightning with a true weather man. I really doubt 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:39.319 that you're going to want to miss this one. My 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:43.120 name is Klay Nukelem, and this is the Bear Grease podcast, 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:47.640 where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search for insight 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:51.400 and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the story of 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:56.160 Americans who live their lives close to the land, presented 0:01:56.280 --> 0:02:01.680 by FHF gear, American made us built hunting and fishing 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:05.040 gear that's designed to be as rugged as the place. 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:16.280 As we explore. On the morning of the third day, 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:20.720 there was thunder and lightning. A cloud covered the mountain. 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:25.520 All the people among the tents shook with fear. Mount 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:29.240 Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord came down 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:32.320 upon it in fire. Its smoke went up like the 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:37.120 smoke of a stove, and the whole mountain shook. Moses spoke, 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:41.440 and God answered him with thunder. Then the Lord came down. 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:49.640 That was an excerpt from the Book of Exodus. Only 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:53.320 in modern times, say the last three hundred years, has 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:57.440 a crack of lightning been simply and wholly viewed as 0:02:57.440 --> 0:03:00.960 a science equation, the sum of a predictable sequence of 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:05.000 positive and negative charges in the clouds arcing to the 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:08.240 ground in a crack of thunder and lightning, fueled by 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:12.480 a billion jewels of energy. But is it just that 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:18.320 because it actually is just that it's science. But is 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:22.359 it more? Was it more back when humans were primitive 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:27.079 thinkers and were led around the nose by some irrational tomfoolery, 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:31.320 or could still today? A flash of lightning be a 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:35.320 window to something deeper, like a pop up advertisement on 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:41.080 Facebook connecting the rational world to that sovereign, invisible, mysterious 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:45.320 power source whose life pulsates on planet Earth that no 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:49.800 equation can understand. I guess it matters how you choose 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.440 to look at this thing. But don't get me wrong, 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:56.440 I'm here for the science, but my experience on this 0:03:56.520 --> 0:04:01.200 planet has told me there's more. Like To introduce you 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:02.440 to a bear hunter. 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:07.880 My name is John Donovan, and back in September I 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:15.440 was hit by lightning by wall bear hunting. Little backstory 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:17.560 about the piece of property. I've been hunting it for 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:22.080 about four years now and pretty much been after this 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:26.920 bear for the three straight seasons and all off season. 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:29.760 I was prepping the area, getting it ready, and then 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:33.920 come opening day, no luck getting the bear. And then 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:37.120 it was September eighteenth. I got out of work and 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:40.520 got into the stand. I was right around one point 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:44.719 thirty two o'clock in the afternoon and there was a 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:48.240 weather cell pretty much in South Fayetteville, right over Greenland, 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:51.840 and I was paying attention to it, and I kind 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:54.479 of just felt an eerie feeling and there was a 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:57.480 wind shift out of nowhere. And I was actually texting 0:04:57.480 --> 0:04:59.760 a buddy at the time, thinking, hey, can you check 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:02.960 the way a little bit more for me? And you know, 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:05.200 maybe it was it felt like ten minutes, but it 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:08.080 was probably only two minutes. I feel the wind shift again, 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:11.039 and I just had this eerie feeling, and I said 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:13.240 to myself, like, I think I should get down stand, 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:16.919 and probably fifty sixty yards behind me is this bluff. 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:18.919 And I was thinking, let me just ride out the storm. 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:20.800 I could tell it was probably gonna be a twenty 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:22.039 to thirty minute storm. 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:22.800 I'll get back up the. 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:24.120 Stand and hopefully the bear comes in. 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:27.880 So I this one stand my whole life. 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:30.160 I always wear a safety harness because my dad actually 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:31.919 fell thirty one feet out of a tree when I 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:34.480 was a kid, and really, you know, it was a 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:37.599 very scary time. He survived, thankfully, and so he harped 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:40.800 all childhood that always have a safety harness, and we 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:43.840 usually use the lifeline I think they're called, but this 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:45.600 one stand. I didn't have it, and I have to 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:48.080 get about ten to twelve feet up and then clip in. 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:54.960 We all know that eerie feeling of an approaching storm, 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:58.280 like John felt. It's an ancient one that's helped our 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:02.160 species survive. We also know the feeling of being in 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:05.760 cell range able to text, but not having good enough 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:08.320 service to get the radar on your weather app to 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:12.039 pull up. I was sitting in a tree that same day, 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:16.159 September eighteenth, twenty twenty five, about forty miles away from 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:20.360 John in Arkansas. He and I both heard rolling thunder 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:23.440 in the distance. A slight wind began to blow, the 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:26.560 sky darkened, and it felt like the sun was gonna set, 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:30.320 even though it was only mid afternoon. And when those 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.479 first drops of rain start to hit you, you get 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:36.760 the sense I've got to get out of here. Because 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:40.240 there's no square inch of planet Earth that's exempt from 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:45.480 potentially being struck. And thirty seven million lightning bolts strike 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:50.280 the United States each year. Rain, wind, and hail all 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:54.239 cover these large areas. Think about this like macro picture 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:57.440 of the places they cover. But it's the specificity of 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:01.080 lightning that makes it so unnerving. We've all been in 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:05.520 a thunderstorm, But how it picks out what and when 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:10.040 to strike is what makes it so unnerving. Two people 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:12.360 could be in a field and one struck and the 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:16.640 other left completely fine. But as it turns out, one 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:20.080 in six hundred thousand Americans will be struck by lightning. 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:22.760 You heard me right, from the stats that I have 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:27.520 found one in six hundred thousand, and that really seems 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:29.320 high to me. But if you think about it, I 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:32.600 bet you know someone or at least know of someone 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:37.240 who's been struck. But that statistic doesn't necessarily mean that 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:40.200 you personally have a one in six hundred thousand chance 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:42.760 of being struck, because people who spend a lot of 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:47.440 time outside have vastly higher odds of being struck than 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:50.200 someone who rarely goes out, and other factors play in 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:53.320 as well. As a matter of fact, if you're a man, 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:57.120 you have a four times more likely chance than a 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:00.640 woman to be struck by lightning, So the actual odds 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:03.480 are closer to one in a million that you'll be struck, 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:06.760 So you can rest easy. But John Donovan was one 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:09.920 of them. This storm that came up on him was 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:12.640 an isolated pop up shower and he thought it might 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:14.480 miss him, so he hung out in the tree and 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:16.560 he was after this big bear. He didn't want to 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:20.679 get down. He's fourteen feet up this metal tree stand. 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:24.160 As the front edge of the storm reaches him and 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:28.040 it starts to rain. He hears a clap of thunder 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:30.360 close and he knows that it's time to go. 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:37.880 So I get situated. I get about one to two 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:42.199 steps down, and then that's when I take the clip off, 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:46.120 and then all of a sudden, one more step down 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:48.560 and that's pretty much the last thing I remember until 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:51.800 I woke up. Just heard a loud noise and I 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:56.400 was out, and then don't really know exactly how long 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:59.320 I was out or not out for, and then I 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:01.880 just remember kind of waking up. And the only way 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:03.840 I can describe it is if you've ever seen like 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:06.520 a war movie where someone gets hit by a frag. 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:10.040 I was everything was a slow motion. I'm looking all 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:13.199 around and I just couldn't breathe couldn't, like, got the 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:15.360 wind knocked out of me. And then I'm just looking 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:17.640 all around and I just see stars and I just 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:21.400 had no idea what happened. And smelt like a weird smell, 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:24.480 but still didn't hit me on what actually happened. I 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:28.280 thought I slipped, and I've long hair, of course, so 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:30.120 my hat was all messed up and my hair was 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:32.199 all on my face and I lift my hand up 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:35.640 and something felt like it stabbed me in the forehead. 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:38.800 And that's when I was reaching for my phone, and 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:41.000 my phone was fried, but I was able to use 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:43.560 like the glare of the black screen, and I just 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:46.280 saw a welt, probably the size of a baseball. And 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:48.680 that's when I just started panicking because I knew something 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:52.840 bad happened. And again, still didn't even realize if I slipped, 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:56.040 if it was lightning, or what it was really, but 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.559 I just knew I had to get out of the woods. 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:00.880 Something was telling me, you have to get out now. 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:03.040 I don't know what was gonna happen, to be honest, 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:06.080 So I start gathering, you know, my stuff, and my 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:09.320 bow was probably ten or so feet away from me. 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:11.680 So then I'm starting putting the clues together. I'm like, 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:13.840 I don't think I fell, because if I fell, how 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:17.080 did I get four feet away from the tree? How 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:20.120 did my bow get there? And that's when I started 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:22.920 realizing I'm pretty sure I just got hit by lightning, 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:24.760 or the tree I was in got hit by lightning. 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:29.640 It's odd to think that you'd be struck by lightning 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.720 and not know it, but it actually makes perfect sense, 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:36.680 as the electrical charge of lightning moves at two hundred 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:40.720 and twenty million miles per hour. That's two thirds the 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:44.160 speed of light, so it hits you before the sound 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:47.520 of thunder because it's traveling faster than the speed of sound. 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:52.920 So John is now laying bewildered on the ground a 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:56.400 wound on his head from smashing against the ground, presumably, 0:10:56.760 --> 0:11:01.079 and his bow is lying several feet away. But we're 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:04.000 gonna leave him right there for now. And I'd like 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:08.880 to introduce you to another one in a million statistic. 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:12.080 He's also my neighbor and friend. 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:20.200 My name is Terrell Spencer, go by Spence. I own 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:24.200 across the Creek Farm pastored poultry farm in West Fork, Arkansas. 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:29.120 And I'm gonna talk about getting popped by lightning. So 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:32.000 I was moving birds. A guy called me to talk 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:35.000 about this decision I had, you know, and so we 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:40.360 we talked a little bit, and I got off my 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:43.880 tractor after talking to him and was hooking up chains 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:46.640 and I was just like, you know what, maybe everyone 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.920 else knows better than me. And I felt like like 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:53.120 I was really supposed to do something, and I'm just like, 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:55.040 I'm just gonna listen to everyone else are smarter than me. 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:58.600 And I was really frustrated. And so we have these 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:02.480 big structures are like twenty by forty. They're big, kind 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:04.800 of imagine a greenhouse on skids, and that's what our 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:08.199 hens are in. And I've got these two twenty foot 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:11.160 logging chains. I hook up onto that structure, one on 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:12.599 each side, and then I hook it up to my 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:15.640 tractor and I pull it. So we got a routine. 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:17.760 So I'm just kind of going through the motions. I 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:20.319 hook those logging chains up, you know, and I've got 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:22.960 like this rain slicker on, and I've got just this 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:26.679 it might be the same pantomwhare Now they're just absolutely soaked, 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:30.760 you know, my muck boots on, and uh, I'm feeding 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:32.720 the birds. So on the front of the tractor. After 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:36.200 I unhook the chains, there's buckets of feed. So I 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:38.160 get the buckets of feed. I'm gonna put you know, 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:41.079 three or four buckets feed in there, and I finish, 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:43.800 and I'm carrying the buckets out. I open up the door, 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:48.160 step out, shut the door, and I take a few steps, 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:51.040 and I'm still kind of grumbling about this thing that 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:53.319 I'm thinking on. I'm not even really paying attention to 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:56.040 what I'm doing. And then all of a sudden, like 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:59.480 out of the corner of my eye, like this pink 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:02.959 purple color happens, and everything just kind of like when 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:06.199 a movie fades, like you know, like in the end, 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:10.080 like everything kind of turns a color. It was like 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:14.120 everything started to turn that pink and and what is 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:16.360 It was probably a split second, but it felt like 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:18.600 a couple seconds, like I was like, wait, what's going on? 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:25.400 And then there was an explosion and yeah, and like 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:29.080 I'd been really close to explosions in the war, like 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:32.640 i'd been, you know, I'd been tossing around by some 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:35.040 rockets and that kind of stuff, and it was it 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:37.000 was just like that, you know, like when you get 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:39.240 hit so hard it feels like it knocks you out 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:39.760 of yourself. 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:45.480 Spence was in the United States Army and served in 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:48.960 the Iraq War in the early two thousands. He saw 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:53.120 some serious act of combat and know, not all of 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:55.960 us know what it feels like to get knocked out 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:59.559 of yourself. But whatever just happened to him, it was 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:02.160 kind of like what happened in the war. It doesn't 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:07.000 sound good, and you might ask how many people are 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:11.400 actually getting struck by lightning. According to the CDC, from 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:15.160 two thousand and six to twenty twenty five, there were 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:19.360 five hundred and seventeen lightning deaths in the United States, 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:23.560 adding up to twenty five deaths per year. In a 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:27.760 wider look at history, lightning deaths peaked in the nineteen forties, 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:31.760 when over four hundred Americans were killed in a single 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:35.720 year nineteen forty three. During that time, the government started 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:40.960 national marketing campaigns educating people about the danger of lightning. 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:45.560 This helped, and lightning deaths have decreased in the last 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:50.400 several decades since then, but clearly they aren't absent. As 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:53.480 a matter of fact, as I'm writing this podcast, a 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:56.640 fifteen year old boy was killed by lightning as he 0:14:56.800 --> 0:15:00.960 sheltered his thirteen year old younger brother for lightning on 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:05.080 top of a Colorado mountain in late July. That's really 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:08.880 hard to understand, and our condolences go out to that family. 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:12.680 But the people who die are actually quite rare, because 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:16.040 ninety percent of people that are struck by lightning live. 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:20.520 On average, two hundred and seventy to three hundred people 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:26.200 are struck each year, and John and Spence clearly survived. 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:32.200 But what is lightning? I know? Just the guy to tell. 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:40.440 Us hello, This is Joshua Weisel with Weather T two 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:42.440 five tests us one two test us. 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:48.120 All right, we are rolling awesome. So introduction for who 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:48.480 I am. 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:52.560 My name is Joshua Weisel and this is my company 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:53.080 behind me. 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:53.960 Weather T two five. 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:59.880 I've been doing weather broadcasting since twenty fifteen and excited 0:15:59.880 --> 0:16:01.680 to be here and talk about some lightning. 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:08.040 Josh is in his mid twenties and he's functionally a meteorologist. 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:11.040 He doesn't work for a TV station, nor has he 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:14.400 taken an established career route. I kind of view him 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:18.880 like a weather outlaw, operating outside the mainstream system and 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:23.840 absolutely obsessed with weather. He has his own streaming weather 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:27.160 service called Weather two two five, where he is the 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:33.640 chief weather analysis serving the four Corners area of Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:36.720 and Arkansas. I think it's better than the Weather Channel, 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:38.760 and I like the passion of it. 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:44.680 So lightning is a phenomenon that obviously we have all encountered, 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:47.720 you know, for whatever reason in this part of the country. 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:51.160 I always laugh and tell people it's not that peaceful 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:54.000 you know overnight thunderstorm that you can sleep to, and 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:56.040 it's that peaceful rumble of thunder off in the distance. 0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:58.800 It always sounds like a bomb goes off. And so 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:03.360 lightning is one of the more dangerous phenomenon with weather 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:06.920 because it doesn't just have to be severe weather to occur. 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:10.080 In order for lightning to occur, you. 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:15.040 Typically need the warm and humid, unstable environment that we 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:19.360 get here in the South, and that leads to taller storms. 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:22.359 And it may sound weird, but you need taller storms 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:26.600 in order for lightning to develop because aloft you get 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:30.040 frozen iceed particles and you get water particles and they 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:33.000 bounce around up in the updraft, and as they bounce around, 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:38.040 they're kind of exchanging the charges and they start to conflict. 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:39.960 So then you see the charges that they separate to 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:42.760 the top and the bottom of the storm. And so 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:47.320 you know, looking at how that works, negative charges go up, 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:51.959 positive charges go down, and that's how you get lightning 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:54.840 to start forming, is the charges. And again you need 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:58.280 more of an unstable and humid environment, So that's why 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:01.560 the South gets most of the lightning in terms of 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:03.720 statistical deaths and occurrences. 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:09.639 Lightning is the result of ice and water particles slashing 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:13.600 around in a cloud, creating an electrical charge, kind of 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:16.360 like a load of towels being tossed around in your 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:21.119 dryer creating static electricity that zaps you when you touch it. 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:24.639 The clouds are the towels, and your hand is the earth. 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:28.840 The positive charges go up and the negative charges go 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:32.159 down in the cloud, and then the positive charges on 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:36.520 the Earth's surface attract those low hanging negative charges, and 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:40.160 a bolt of lightning is born, kind of like an 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:45.000 unheard of before anecdote being birthed and born right out 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:48.840 of Brent Reeves's lips. And similar to his hot air, 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:53.879 lightning heats up the air to fifty four thousand degrees fahrenheit, 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:58.800 making it expand so quickly it creates a shockwave, a boot, 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:04.840 a flash of electromagnetic radiation. And as John said, the 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:08.960 South is the lightning capital of America. But Florida is 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:12.520 the lightning capital of all the states, with more deaths 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:16.480 than any other place, averaging between seven and ten per year. 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:21.120 But Texas has the most lightning strikes, with around thirteen 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:27.959 million striking annually, But Oklahoma, Oklahoma has the highest concentration 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:33.760 of lightning, with seventy three flashes per square mile annually. 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:36.359 To break that down the way it makes sense to me, 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:40.200 Florida has more people, so more people get killed. They've 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:43.200 also got a lot of ag in flat country. Texas 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.720 has the bigger geographic area, so it gets the most lightning. 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:49.840 But it sounds to me like Oklahoma actually has the 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:54.359 most lightning. And that's probably the reason that this song 0:19:54.920 --> 0:20:03.040 was written in Oklahoma. 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:14.040 When we were sitting on the front porch where the 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:15.320 weather rolling. 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:19.680 In, laughing louder than the big South end. 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:26.960 He ran out to rule you, and the bladder ain't 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:31.119 falling in your hair. He's hand leg checkers from a 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:39.280 fool in chair country music in the kitchen, and hear 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:41.000 it singing through the screen. 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:44.040 Withather warns in. 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:51.640 Twin that's the Turnpike Troubadour's song a tornado warning. There's 0:20:51.680 --> 0:20:54.600 no doubt the storm they wrote about had lightning in it. 0:20:55.400 --> 0:20:59.080 But let's get back to John Donovan who wished he'd 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:02.000 had a weather warning. But remember he doesn't know what's 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:05.240 happened he's woken up on the ground after blacking out. 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:08.439 He's clearly falling out of his tree stand, and his 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:10.639 phone is fried and doesn't work. 0:21:12.240 --> 0:21:15.080 So again these are all like I'm kind of falling 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:18.800 in and out of understanding where I was. But I 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:20.600 knew I had to get out because no one was 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:22.679 really going to be looking for me for probably, like 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:24.240 I said, I think it was three or three thirty 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:28.119 people had my location. But so I start gathering my 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:32.280 belongings and I'm roughly I call about three quarters of 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:35.159 a mile down this bluff, and my truck's parked up, 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:38.800 and I just start going up this hill and every 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:41.440 ten to twenty feet I'm falling down and I'm just 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:44.080 taking everything out of me to even walk. And I 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:45.600 got to the point where i would pick like a 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:47.840 rock or a tree, and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:49.600 make it there, and I would get up and then 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:52.800 I'd start passing out. And then about halfway up is 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:57.040 when my whole left side started to not work. I 0:21:57.080 --> 0:21:59.720 felt my arm going limp, I was holding my bag, 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:02.480 let go my bag, and my vision in my left 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:04.439 side just started getting all blurry. And it was the 0:22:04.440 --> 0:22:07.439 same side where I hit my head, so that was 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:11.919 really really scaring me. And then again the timeframe, like 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:15.159 the minutes, the hours are still kind of fuzzy. I 0:22:15.240 --> 0:22:19.600 know it happened roughly around three I got to my truck, 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:23.320 I want to say, around three fifty, right before four o'clock, 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:26.960 and couldn't connect my phone. My phone still wasn't working, 0:22:27.000 --> 0:22:29.040 so I couldn't dial out or anything. So in my 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:33.080 mind my plan was, I need to get somewhere where 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:36.840 someone can find me. So my plan was to try 0:22:36.840 --> 0:22:39.480 to safely crash or pull off into a ditch. By 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:44.040 seventy one and another like ten or so minutes that 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:47.280 I don't really remember. I must have taken my boots 0:22:47.320 --> 0:22:50.240 off and my pants off, because when I ended up 0:22:50.240 --> 0:22:54.600 getting to the hospital later, I was in my gym 0:22:54.640 --> 0:22:56.600 shorts and a pair of like slides or something like 0:22:56.680 --> 0:22:59.960 cheap sneakers or something I had, and I think subconsciously 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:02.240 I was making sure my feet were working because I 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:04.959 knew I had to use the the gas and breaks 0:23:04.960 --> 0:23:05.440 in my truck. 0:23:05.520 --> 0:23:06.920 So I still. 0:23:06.680 --> 0:23:09.080 Don't really remember why I did that or what the 0:23:09.080 --> 0:23:12.480 reason was. But and then so I finally get in 0:23:12.480 --> 0:23:15.120 my truck, my phone's still not working, and it's trenchill 0:23:15.200 --> 0:23:19.960 downpour now, and I keep just getting like these adrenaline 0:23:20.040 --> 0:23:22.840 rushes of Okay, keep going, you can make it to 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:24.880 the next road. You can make it to the next road. 0:23:24.920 --> 0:23:28.600 And then finally my phone connected to my truck, and 0:23:28.640 --> 0:23:30.920 I see my little wife's face out of my right 0:23:30.960 --> 0:23:33.359 eye on my recent call, so I just click it. 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:38.600 John barely remembers this stuff, and much of it came 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:41.800 to him days or even weeks later. It was like 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:45.760 the lightning took his consciousness and he was fading in 0:23:45.880 --> 0:23:50.000 and out of it, trying to get back. Oddly. Terrell 0:23:50.119 --> 0:23:54.000 Spencer had a similar experience back in the chicken pasture. 0:23:55.880 --> 0:23:58.920 A lot of stuff happened, I think pretty fast. I 0:23:58.960 --> 0:24:02.040 knew I'd been hit by light and everything was white 0:24:02.320 --> 0:24:04.160 and I couldn't hear any like it was just like 0:24:04.840 --> 0:24:08.160 a reset. And when I came to, I was kind 0:24:08.160 --> 0:24:11.560 of looking over my body, and then there was like 0:24:11.880 --> 0:24:14.480 all the stuff that I believe about, like faith and 0:24:15.640 --> 0:24:17.960 meeting God and being judged. Like I can tell you 0:24:18.080 --> 0:24:21.000 I believe that more now, like cause I feel like 0:24:21.080 --> 0:24:22.800 I went through all that. You know, there's that whole 0:24:22.840 --> 0:24:25.679