(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 at Lac-Saint-Jean on Saturday, is still shaken.
Posted at 4:59pm
William Theriault LaPresse
During a fishing trip in the Lac-du-Milieu, four people were injured by lightning and almost fifteen vehicles were badly damaged by severe storms. Two people were taken to Roberval hospital immediately and two others there the next day, but they were later discharged.
The incident happened around 5 p.m. at kilometer 38 of Route 167, said Sergeant Hélène Saint-Pierre of the Sûreté du Québec.
The lightning first struck the windshield of a truck, then spread to the area, hitting a generator in particular. A man standing in the shower, Patrick Bourget’s neighbor, was badly hit. “It got into his legs, he wasn’t there anymore [mentalement] ‘ he recalls.
“Lightning struck about 25 feet from me. I’ve felt “boom” in my life, says the witness. But it’s indescribable, the sound and the power it has. You don’t even wish that on someone you don’t love. Today I don’t feel in work mode, I acknowledge that my head is elsewhere. »
“From a Movie”
“The flash created a fireball, straight out of a movie,” claims Patrick Bourget. It was spectacular. It crossed 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 flash landed 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 journey over a certain distance,” explains Météo Chicoutimi manager Jimmy Desbiens. Electrical, water and steel cables are the easiest ways of spreading […] in the radius of the impact point. »
In the event of a storm, Jimmy Desbiens recommends taking refuge indoors and then staying clear of windows, doors, and electrical equipment. “And don’t take a shower, because water conducts electricity,” he adds.
Learn more
30,000 degrees is the highest temperature that lightning can reach.
Weather Chicoutimi
20% percentage of lightning strikes that reach the ground. The remaining 80% are called intracloud lightning, meaning they travel from one cloud to another.
Weather in Chicoutimi