Lightning Bolts Strike San Francisco's Bay Bridge (PICTURE)

Huffington Post UK  |  By Posted: 13/04/2012 16:38 Updated: 16/04/2012 15:04

This astonishing photograph shows San Francisco’s Bay Bridge being struck by a whopping NINE bolts of lightning.

Captured through a rain-streaked window by Phil McGrew, it certainly puts paid to the myth lightning never strikes the same place twice.

McGrew admitted he wasn’t brave enough to venture outside to capture the storm on Thursday night, but was delighted with his shot.

He told the Daily Mail: “When I looked at my camera, I had a few that were just dark, and then some were very bright where I had just missed the strikes. Then I saw this one, it was incredible.”

Lightning Strike! Matt Wilks Survives Being Hit Twice Thanks To £3 eBay Umbrella Hat
Scroll down for a gallery of lightning bolts bombarding Albuquerque, New Mexico, last week


Phil McGrew/North News

Lightning bolts bombard Albuquerque, New Mexico

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This astonishing photograph shows San Francisco’s Bay Bridge being struck by a whopping NINE bolts of lightning. Captured through a rain-streaked window by Phil McGrew, it certainly puts paid to...
This astonishing photograph shows San Francisco’s Bay Bridge being struck by a whopping NINE bolts of lightning. Captured through a rain-streaked window by Phil McGrew, it certainly puts paid to...
 
 
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23:06 on 15/04/2012
hope the lightening and rain goes away soon as I am flying to San Fran in a couple of weeks and i want some SUNSHINE xx
02:11 on 16/04/2012
Sorry "suefenny", but the lightning is constant for months at a time... and the only time the sun comes out is at night....
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mamanelle5
What is this????
22:53 on 15/04/2012
Wonderful pictures!!!! I've never seen the bridge being hit by lightning.
photo
uniqumm
Hot Snark served with relish
18:32 on 15/04/2012
The unanswered question is:

How long was the exposure?
02:11 on 16/04/2012
For the photo or the photographer?
photo
uniqumm
Hot Snark served with relish
02:44 on 16/04/2012
LOL!

The photo, of course.
18:25 on 15/04/2012
Great photo! Just glad my brother wasn't on the bridge when this happened.
23:57 on 15/04/2012
He would have been perfectly safe! The wonderful thing about metallic superstructures is their ability to divert lightning from populated areas while also safeguarding people on the structure. Even if your brother was a pedestrian touching the framework of the bridge, he wouldn't have been hurt because lightning rods take the bulk of the voltage. Motorists on the bridge are even better protected because cars are essentially motorized faraday cages. Top Gear's Richard Hammond once put the "Faraday" theory to the test by driving a VW Golf through a 600,000 volt current. He didn't feel a thing (apart from exhilaration anyway).
02:18 on 16/04/2012
Plus a tinfoil hat does wonders to diffuse the electric field around his head..
03:50 on 16/04/2012
Thanks for the info!
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15:56 on 15/04/2012
I miss. San Fran. Have to go back to Cali.
02:12 on 16/04/2012
Does that make you a Super Cali Fragalicious? By some kind of Expialidotious?
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photo
03:42 on 17/04/2012
Nah, it gives me something to look forward to. NYC living is too much - I've lived here most of my life
09:00 on 15/04/2012
I used to travel under the Bay bridge twice a month for 15 years and I never ever saw it looking like that.............in fact, I can't even remember seeing rain in San Francisco but I guess it must do sometimes. Good photo, very lucky to have caught it.
02:13 on 16/04/2012
Photoshop
06:47 on 16/04/2012
Could be..who knows, the days when they said a camera never lies is over.
photo
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feedersoccer
oh shush
08:14 on 15/04/2012
Ok, who has upset the Zues?
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jedime
i am.
20:21 on 14/04/2012
neato magneto.
photo
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Andrea Blackwell
Why watch the news? The truth's on Comedy Central!
13:00 on 14/04/2012
How many lightning lightning rods did put on the BIG lightning rod?
Fantastic shot!
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09:32 on 14/04/2012
I'm a native of SF Bay, and I think I've seen lightening there MAYBE 3 times in my entire life (43 years)... so, wow, to have it strike the bridge, what a rarity. I agree with an earlier poster about being glad not to have been ON the bridge at the time. I think I would have died of heart failure, not of the lightening!
15:51 on 15/04/2012
I have been to San Francisco only once and we had lightning while I was there. So is it more common than you think or was I just lucky?
02:14 on 16/04/2012
You got lucky in San Fran? You dog....
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uniqumm
Hot Snark served with relish
18:34 on 15/04/2012
Other than fright, I doubt very much it would have had any effect whatsoever.
01:48 on 14/04/2012
Thank you, Phil McGrew. It was an exciting night and you managed to capture a thrilling moment. Hope they paid you well for the photo. It makes a nice screen background after a little cropping. Great picture!\
photo
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Quinn M
Feel trickled on yet?
01:16 on 14/04/2012
Feeling grateful I was not on the Bay Bridge last night. It would have been hard to keep driving with all the pee.
21:12 on 13/04/2012
the end is near
photo
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Andrea Blackwell
Why watch the news? The truth's on Comedy Central!
13:02 on 14/04/2012
It always is. Sometimes, it's a good thing.
Pray for the end of greed and this rock might have a fighting chance.
02:15 on 16/04/2012
Sorry iakdmkzi, that's the other set of photos that the photographer took in San Fran, and those are for his own personal usage only...
20:33 on 13/04/2012
Awesome pics, but more terrifying are those that were outside during the storm, like myself.