Driver captures moment four lightning bolts strike her car

It was one of Tampa Bay lightning’s greatest hits — and we’re not talking about the hockey team.

A woman captured the electrifying moment that a thunderous bolt struck a car in front of her while driving during a storm in south Florida. The freak phenomenon occurred just after the National Weather Service issued a warning about flash flooding in the region, Storyful reported.

“It started to storm and I thought the lightning was neat, so I was trying to snap a picture of the lightning and missed every time,” Michaelle May Whalen told Storyful of the shocking event, which occurred while she was driving home from vacation with her three kids and husband, who happened to be driving the truck in front of her that was hit.

The volunteer storm chaser said she finally “captured the event on camera” after her son-in-law suggested she use “slow-motion video record.”

The resultant footage follows as the family truck drives through the pounding rain, when all of a sudden lightning strikes with an audible crack. A subsequent slo-mo shot shows multiple bolts hitting the windshield in quick succession, showering sparks everywhere.

Thankfully no one was injured by the bolts from above, though the truck was completely fried, according to Whalen.

Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist with the National Lightning Safety Council, postulated that The Whalens’ vehicle was struck by a quartet of bolts.

“This looks like a 4 stroke lightning flash with the fourth stroke potentially having continuing current,” the bolt buff explained in a retweet of the viral clip. “Assume driving 60 mph. 4 car lengths is ~60 feet. 60 mph is 88 feet per second, so 2/3 of a second to travel. Lightning flash can be 1 sec long.”

In a more disastrous lightning strike last year, 18 people died after a bolt struck a watchtower where tourists were snapping storm selfies in Jaipur, India.