(Ashuapmushuam Wildlife Reserve) “For a split second, it was white and blue, you couldn’t see anything. It’s the biggest sound I’ve heard in my life. It’s unimaginable what we’ve been through. Patrick Bourget, who saw lightning strike his camp on Saturday at Lac-Saint-Jean, is still shaken.
Posted at 4:59 p.m.
Lightning generated by severe storms injured four people and seriously damaged nearly fifteen vehicles during a fishing activity in Lac-du-Milieu. Two individuals were taken to Roberval hospital immediately and two others went there the next day, but they were later discharged.
The incident took place around 5 p.m. at kilometer 38 of Route 167, said Sergeant Hélène Saint-Pierre of the Sûreté du Québec.
The lightning first hit the windshield of a truck, before spreading in the surroundings, notably affecting a generator. A man who was taking a shower, the neighbor of Patrick Bourget, was hit hard. “It got into his legs, he was no longer there [mentalement] “, he recalls.
“The lightning struck about 25 feet from me. I have already felt “boom” in my life, relates the witness. But it’s indescribable, the sound and the strength it has. You don’t even wish that on someone you don’t love. Today, I don’t feel in work mode, I confirm that my head is elsewhere. »
“Out of a movie”
“The lightning created a ball of fire, straight out of a film, maintains Patrick Bourget. It was spectacular. It did the whole street, crossed several hundred feet. People nearby on their land “flew” back to their tents. One of them fell on his daughter. The lightning ended up on a trailer, where a second man was taking a shower. He too was taken to the hospital.
Once it hits the ground, “lightning can continue its path for a certain distance, explains the manager of Météo Chicoutimi, Jimmy Desbiens. Electrical cables, water and steel cables are the easiest ways for it to spread […] within the radius of its point of impact. »
In the event of a storm, Jimmy Desbiens recommends taking refuge inside a building, then staying away from windows, doors and electrical equipment. “And don’t take a shower, because water conducts electricity,” he adds.
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- 30,000 degrees
- Highest temperature that lightning can reach.
weather Chicoutimi
- 20%
- Proportion of lightning that travels to the ground. The remaining 80% is called intracloud lightning, which means that it travels from one cloud to another.
Weather in Chicoutimi