Esfand and Maral got more than they bargained for during a recent IRL driving stream when lightning struck close enough to their vehicle to send them straight home.
The OTK co-founder was streaming from his car during an active thunderstorm when a powerful strike hit nearby. The stream captured a bright flash followed immediately by deafening thunder—the telltale sign of a dangerously close strike. Both streamers visibly jumped in their seats as the boom rattled through the vehicle.
The flash was intense enough to illuminate the entire frame, and the thunder arrived with almost no delay, indicating the lightning touched down within a few hundred feet of the car at most.
According to viewers watching the stream, Esfand and Maral had planned to stop at Buc-ee’s—a Texas travel center chain that’s become a regular fixture in IRL streams. That plan got ditched immediately after the strike. Instead, they drove straight home.
No injuries or equipment damage were reported. While cars generally protect occupants during lightning strikes thanks to their metal frames acting as a Faraday cage, near misses can still produce loud noise and startling flashes that rattle anyone inside.
Texas is notorious for sudden, intense thunderstorms that can roll in with little warning. IRL streamers in the region regularly encounter severe weather while broadcasting, but close lightning strikes remain relatively rare captures on stream.
