[Ramius]

Really cool photos.

Many years ago I had lightning strike very close by, just across a street from me, in a parking lot in Phoenix. I just happened to be looking right in that direction when BAM it struck. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. It was intensely LOUD and bright... but the thing I had never really thought about before was how THICK it was. I’d never really considered that before, but this bolt was as big as the trunk of a big oldgrowth cedar tree. Maybe five feet across or more. Very cool. Amazing power.

[Ditter]

You just reminded me of an extraordinary lightning bolt that I saw. It was very wide, like you described, came straight down to the ground and had little thin lightning bolts, each with a round ball on the end, coming out from the sides of it. If I had of looked away for a second I would have missed it.