I bet it was a gay tree
That was more like Flame Strike. Cool. I want to see Creeping Doom next!
I wonder why that puff of smoke appears off to the right? Maybe from tree roots that stretch that far?
A chunk of the trunk.
Hmm, upon rewatching, I say your theory of the trunk chunk is junk.
I agree, totally bunk.
Why does it sound more like a firecracker / gunshot than a thunder clap?
Blows out the light on the pole, but it comes back on after a few seconds. The light on the building isn’t so lucky.
I subscribe to the Junky Mic Theory.
I’ll be in my bunk.
/yeah, you’re right: something else blew up. (note to self, next time look at it full-screen.)
Most likely a secondary channel. Lightnings often have more than one discharge channel, the other ones weaker than the main.
Another hypothesis is something that overheated due to the induced current. The magnetic fields around the lightning are pretty intense. I recall hearing about a metal cable duct that was near such a lightning hit, and the cables were charred in regular intervals - some RF got induced inside and made a standing wave.
…thought… could a lightning be drawn from the sky using e.g. a rocket on a wire, into a big vircator tube, and used as a microwave cannon?
That last part sounds a little like Ben Carson…no offence intended.
“I’ll be in my bunk”
Jayne Cobb
No offence taken, just please explain why to an European. Wikipedia tells only so much about said Ben. 
Promising! Maybe even something that could be converted into an Online Outrage Machine. 
Odds of capturing a lightning strike on camera : 1 in 960,000
Odds of some Texan shooting off a BFG at a tree in a schoolyard : 1 in 3
I would like to think it was a secondary channel exploding a squirrel… Instead of a rocket, maybe a kite? It would be easier to keep in in the clouds and build up a charge.
The charge is already there, the rocket just drags the wire which creates a conductive path. This tech is routinely used in lightning research.
Enough of those already. They also use a more sustained power feed, instead of pulsed one. If their power could be harnessed, we’d be all swimming in energy too cheap to meter.
My theory (electrical engineer):
This is because the original boom is so darn loud. Those camera microphones have automatic volume limiters that turn down the gain for a few seconds when overloaded. So you don’t hear all the reverberation that you’re accustomed to.
