Lightning and thunder
Last night, I'm pretty sure a lightning bolt struck very near my apartment, or at least closer than I've ever been to lightning. The thunderclap was so loud I jumped out of bed and ran out the front door (still half asleep), looking around to see what had blown up. All the car alarms on the street were going off, adding to my general confusion. It happened one more time before I crawled back into bed, and while I didn't see the bolt directly, I saw the windows light up out of the corner of my eye.

There was almost no delay between the lightning and the thunder, and it seemed like the clap lasted for five seconds, and it was deafening; I can't remember hearing anything that loud. I'm not ashamed to say that I was also really scared, probably because I was half asleep and wasn't sure if it was actually happening or not, and I kept imagining lightning striking my apartment directly and lighting it on fire.

I went online looking for any neighborhood blogs mentioning it, and found this post on a Beacon Hill blog. So I guess it wasn't necessarily right by my apartment, but loud enough that many in my neighborhood had the same experience.