Lightning Strikes Turlock High School Earth Science Teacher

Turlock, California -- A 35-year-old Turlock man survived a lightning strike to the shoulder while photographing Saturday evening's swift-moving thunder storms. Ryan Hollister, a Turlock High School Earth Science Teacher was hit by the bolt of lightning while storm chasing west of Hilmar. According to CHP officer Tom Edison, Mr. Hollister, his wife and infant son parked on the shoulder of Faith Home Road near Bloss Avenue at 7:30pm. Mr. Hollister got out of the car, set-up his tripod and took photographs for several minutes when it became apparent that the approaching storm was moving-in much more quickly than the family had anticipated. Mr. Hollister, at the behest of his wife, was in the process of collapsing and shouldering his tripod while returning to his car when "a deafening flash of light and intense burning sensation crossed the victim's left shoulder".

The 1.21 gigawatt bolt appeared to have amazingly traveled through Mr. Hollister's carbon fiber tripod and arced to a barbed-wire fence several feet away leaving Hollister relatively unscathed. "The victim was shell-shocked but coherent upon my arrival to the scene," said Edison. "Aside from frayed carbon fibers, his broken camera and his rain jacket's melted left shoulder and hearing loss, the victim was relatively unscathed. He's certainly a very lucky man."

Mr. Hollister was well-enough to recount his traumatic experience on Sunday afternoon. "I was hoping to capture this rare phenomenon (lightning) for my geoscience and AP Environmental Science students. We're just entering our weather unit and I really wanted to find a way to bring this weather experience into the classroom. I was hoping that photos would be good enough, but I've now gotten a first-hand experience that I wish I hadn't". Wiping away tears while holding his new son, Zephyr, Mr. Hollister continued, "I'm just so thankful to be alive. It could have been so much worse".

The irony of lightning striking an Earth Science teacher with a masters degree in Geoscience was not lost on Mr. Hollister. "I teach a very in-depth lightning safety lesson every year to the students because they're not as accustomed to severe weather dangers as students in the Midwest and south, where thunderstorms and tornados are commonplace," said Hollister. "One of the very first parts of that lesson describes the rule of thumb for determining lightning's distance from an observer: every five seconds between lightning and thunder equals about one mile of distance. I was struck after my last count was only four seconds." The upshot for Mr. Hollister? "I actually got some pretty awesome photographs."

When asked what he hopes his students will learn from his situation Hollister replied, "I hope they become thorough readers and always check a news article's source and credibility. You just never know what kind of bizarre stories will happen on April 1st."