yeah, lightning can go pretty far. My son and I were outside one evening and there was sporadic lightning off in the distance. As we watched the storm get closer, my son leaned up against a metal rain gutter downspout. Couple of lightning bolts went off in the distance, and he jumped. He didnt have a shirt on and we looked at his back where it had been touching the down spout, and it was angry red, he had been shocked/burned.