Lighting doesn’t always go down, it can go any direction and often goes horizontal, so the origin of that strike could have begun over your head at 1000 feet in the cloud base (a second away) while striking the Earth at some greater distance. Just one of many possibilities. But its usually best not to hang out in thunder storms :)
If you look carefully, it looks like the brightest part of this lightning strike was at the top.
If you look carefully, it looks like the brightest part of this lightning strike was at the top.
Such “clear air lightning” can actually hit up to ten miles away from the storm. It’s very dangerous.