Storm chaser struck by lightning, survives
Scott Sheppard had stopped to shoot video of a rainbow after a South Dakota storm
A storm chaser in pursuit of severe South Dakota weather on Tuesday was struck by lightning while shooting footage of a rainbow from his car.
According to Severe Studios, Scott Sheppard was chasing a storm cell in Fairburn, S.D., when a lightning strike hit his arm, "traveled down to the ground, and blew a hole in the pavement."
The video shows the precise moment when lightning hit Sheppard, who had pulled off to the side of the road to film a rainbow that had formed in the wake of the storm. A cloud of red dust and debris can be seen just after the bolt.
The strike also "disabled his vehicle and a passing car, both of which had to be towed," the studio said, adding: "Scott has a sore arm but is otherwise OK.”
The severe weather is part of a string of violent storms that ripped through the Dakotas this week. On Monday, a tornado touched down in North Dakota, injuring nine people — one of them critically — when it struck an oil workers' camp south of Watford City, N.D. The twister damaged about 15 trailers housing workers 30 miles southwest of Williston, N.D., the center of the state's oil boom.
