Lloyd Strode, 62, felt the force of the lightning’s current when it struck close to him and his friend, knocking them down as they were leaving the Kissing Camels Golf Course at Garden of the Gods Park in Colorado Springs Sunday afternoon.

“I felt like I was lifted off the ground and then I fell back down,” Strode, a family practice physician in Colorado Springs, told The Gazette. “It didn’t hit us directly; we’d be dead. But it definitely hit close enough to knock us out for a few moments.”

Fast-moving thunderstorms traveling over the Pikes Peak region collided with dry air conditions in Colorado Springs Sunday, sparking lots of lightning, especially over the city’s west side.

“We were getting off the golf course when the lightning struck about 4:30 p.m.,” Strode said. “The weather just came in so quick, we barely got a chance to move ahead of it or avoid it.”

In Bear Creek Park, lightning knocked down electric lines and burned a small patch of grass near South 21st Street about 3:45 p.m., police said. Firefighters quickly extinguished another grass fire ignited by lightning near the Trading Post at Garden of the Gods Park about 4 p.m., fire Lt. Kriss Soppe said.

“It was a minor, smoldering grass fire, it didn’t threaten any structures,” Soppe said. “We definitely got several calls from people who were concerned with all the lightning.”

But Soppe said fire and emergency crews did not receive reports of anyone struck or injured by lightning on Sunday and Strode confirmed he and his friend did not call 9-1-1 or seek medical attention after their close encounter with lightning at the golf course.

“I checked my pulse and then I checked my friend’s, to make sure he was OK,” Strode said. “He was a little less dazed than I was, but neither of us experienced amnesia or pain, and we were not injured.”

An employee at the golf course’s pro shop insisted that no golfers had been struck by lightning on the course Sunday, but declined to comment further.

“I feel a little shaky, but other than that, I’m fine,” Strode said. “I checked on my friend after I got back home and he was doing well, so I don’t think we have anything to worry about. We should pay better attention to the weather when we’re golfing, that’s for sure.”

There are approximately 530,000 lightning strikes in Colorado per year, according to the National Weather Service.

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