Close Call!

So...

Yesterday, Wednesday, July 22, 2009... I experienced something, that I have not for many years! In fact I was a teenager, away at summer camp, up around Payson...

So, I was outside, on a front porch/deck, enjoying a rainstorm (under shelter of course)... talking on my cellphone, when...

I saw a flash, both somehow heard and saw it, a crack in both the audible/visual/physical sense...

There was a blue haze...

My hairs (plural! Just about all of them!), stood on end...

Almost instantaneously, as all this was occurring, felt and heard the crack/bang/boom of thunder!

There was a lighting strike, very, very close by...

Two dogs that were outside with me, jumped up and were inside the house within milliseconds... just a few milliseconds before me!

I was still on my phone, and as the party I was talking to will attest... it took me a few moments to compose myself!

It was one of those "wrap around" storms! The Arizona monsoon in Flagstaff, typically comes in from the West. This one came in from the East, and seemed to pack a particularly heavy punch, as the hail and heavy rain started a few minutes after my "close call!"

I was able to finish the conversation, despite my accelerated heart rate!

A close call, but one I wonder about...