Lightning Melts the Interior of a Ford Super Duty

Is there a more violent and incredible force of nature than lightning? The damage it can do is mind-boggling, and if you're caught in the middle of an electrical storm, you can only hope it spares you.

Not convinced? Consider what happened to a Ford Super Duty recently. The truck, parked at a Ford dealership, was struck by lightning, and the damage caused gives an idea of how strong this natural phenomenon is. And no, we’re not talking about a new F-150 Lightning electric truck hammering one of its gas-powered brethren. An actual lightning bolt passed through the windshield of the truck and destroyed pretty much everything in its path.

From the outside, we see a cracked windshield. Inside, however, the scene is apocalyptic. The view from outside the driver's seat is of a blackened and melted interior, as well as a severely burned windshield.

Fortunately, the truck was unoccupied at the time the lightning struck.

The lightning bolt landed just to the right of the centre of the dashboard, “widening” the space between the glove compartment and the air conditioning controls. From top to bottom, plastic, stretched and melted by the heat, hangs from the upper storage compartment. Nothing was left unscathed in the lightning's path of destruction. Which is to be expected when a 300-million-volt force makes contact with an object.

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