I can’t speak to exactly what this driver in Zhejiang, China did to piss off Zeus, god of thunder and lightning, but there certainly does appear to be beef there. Beef that seems to have been settled with a lightning strike right to the hood of a vehicle. Everyone’s okay, so gawk guilt-free.
The strike happened on July 4, which would make this much more festive if it happened in America, but, you know, too bad. According to a Fox News report about the lightning strike, the driver described the incident like this:
“There was a thunderstorm and my car was hit by lightning. It happened so fast I didn’t realize what happened until I heard the loud bang.”
That, uh, pretty much sums it up. I’m not sure why the Fox News story calls it a truck, though, when the video seems to show an SUV, which you can see here, about 0:26 in:
Strangely, this video of the event from the South China Morning Post—one that I can, importantly, embed here—suggests it shows a car “nearly struck by lightning” which is odd, considering the driver claimed the car was hit, and it sure looks like the bolt impacted the hood:
Also confusing: why is the whole car’s front end pixellated out in the video? Are they hiding the car’s face? So we can’t identify it? License plate, sure I get, but the car’s face? Did it not sign a release?
The video also mentions that the right-side mirror was damaged, which wouldn’t seem likely unless the car was directly hit?
Thanks to the fact that a car acts like a Faraday Cage, the energy from the lightning flowed to ground over the exterior structure of the car, leaving the driver inside intact and un-cooked.
I guess the lesson here is settle your beefs with lightning-bolt-wielding gods before going out for a drive. Why take chances?
So, Ba’al, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry I said your hat looks like a bowling pin and looks stupid on you. That wasn’t cool, and I hope I didn’t ruin your date. Sorry.
(thanks, Ken!)