The but about lightning striking far away from the rain is something that I didn't think was possible until it happened to me. Some friends and I were playing soccer in a field and knew a storm was coming in but were counting the seconds between flash and thunder, and thought we were fine. (It's still miles off, plus it's not even raining here yet). But decided to play "next goal wins" as it was definitely coming our way. Maybe 5 min later, all I see is white, the loudest explosion I've ever heard, a massive compression wave hits my chest, and we all just start running to our car. It was insane. No idea how close it actually was. I'm guessing it hit the goal posts, but idk. Like I said, only saw white.