This is what it looks like when lightning strikes your car – a big flash, an even bigger boom, and a golden shower of sparks.


The Morlock family was driving through Utah in a storm when Taylor Morlock actually went out and tempted Zeus by saying "I hope we get struck by lightning," according to local TV station KSL. The Morlock's (no, not those Morlocks) SUV was promptly hit with a big bolt right on their antenna:

The electrical gauges immediately shut off in the vehicle after the lightning strike. Three tires were also blown out, and the Morlocks were stranded in the rain until a passerby stopped and called for a tow truck.


Though it may seem weird, as the entire thing tends to be made out of metal, a car is the safest place you can be during a storm. It's not actually the rubber in the tires that protects you, as that's not nearly enough to protect you from the 30,000 average amps of current in a lightning bolt. The metal itself is what helps you, forming a Faraday cage around the vehicle occupants. The metal frame of the vehicle actually directs the electricity around you, rather than through you.

To get a better idea of what that's like, check out this video of a specially-constructed Faraday cage in action, getting hit by the bolts from a Tesla coil:

And if you don't believe it will work in a car because that's just silly, check out the test Top Gear did a few years back:

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about the paint. It'll buff out.