https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2310/HiResSprites_Escurat_3000.jpg Sprite Lightning in High Definition Image Credit & Copyright: Nicolas Escurat Explanation: Sometimes lightning occurs out near space. One such lightning type is red sprite lightning, which has only been photographed and studied on Earth over the past 25 years. The origins of all types of lightning remain topics for research, and scientists are still trying to figure out why red sprite lightning occurs at all. Research has shown that following a powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike, red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of ionized air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the speed of light. They are quickly followed by a group of upward streaking ionized balls. Featured here is an extraordinarily high-resolution image of a group of red sprites. This image is a single frame lasting only 1/25th of a second from a video taken above Castelnaud Castle in Dordogne, France, about three weeks ago. The sprites quickly vanished -- no sprites were visible even on the very next video frame.
A cool shot to get. I witnessed what they call a "super bolt" in central Africa which was staggering, it seemed to go horizon to horizon and the clap was what you can only imagine like a nuke. Everybody was taken aback as the horizontal bolt's thunder hit everywhere all at once. I was looking a little in the wrong direction but there was still plasma glowing for seconds way longer than normal.
I experienced a tree getting hit while I was walking one of our dogs a few years back. It was a good 2 blocks up, but I think the dog and I both crapped our pants. It was an immediate time to go home event and hope not to die on the way.
But if you did die, maybe you'd do it in spectacular fashion, your body turning into a million little sprites.
Probably, the next day when I was out the mess from the strike had been cleaned up, but I could see where the tree had been hit and burned a bit. When I worked for an airline an employee at another airline didn't get hit directly, but was on a jetway just stepping off at ground level when the jetway get hit. He got thrown and they had to rush him to the hospital. Not sure what happened, but never heard that he died.
A friend and I were climbing Mount Dana in Yosemite Park when lightning hit the road that was almost 4000 feet below us. We were close to the top, but he ran back to the car. I continued to the peak. As it turned out, there were no more strikes.