Daily Mail reported that a strange phenomenon occurred in the suburbs of Tampa, California, USA , when lightning struck a residential area, hitting a palm tree, even though the sky was clear and there was no sign of a storm.

The dash cam in the car of Johnathan Moore, a local working nearby, captured this rare and terrifying moment. Johnathan Moore said that while he was working about 22 meters away, a bolt of lightning suddenly shot down through the treetops, flashing brightly. The terrifying scene happened so quickly, within just 1 second.

Meteorologists explain that the phenomenon of “lightning in the clear sky” is extremely rare and extremely dangerous. In this case, the lightning is formed from a storm cloud very far away, people cannot see it, so at the place where the lightning strikes, the sky is completely clear or has few clouds. Because the lightning’s travel distance is very far, its voltage is also 6-10 times higher and it travels 10 times farther and longer than normal lightning.

NBC News quoted the US National Weather Service as saying that the central Florida peninsula has the highest lightning density in the US. Peak lightning season here is between May and October, from noon to midnight.

In 2019, 27 people were killed by lightning in the United States and 243 others were injured, according to data from the National Weather Service. So far in 2020, 12 people have died from lightning strikes in the United States.