ST. PETE BEACH, Fla.—The Fourth of July on the stretch of the Gulf of America known as St. Pete Beach began with a thundering sky and popping lights, not from fireworks but a wave of lightning storms coming in off the open water.
But the dark skies, booming thunder, and flashing lightning did not deter the day’s beachgoers. In fact, it would take lightning striking the beach and some of their fellow beachgoers to get most of them to retreat to the safety of their cars.
“We held it down as long as we could, and then once the lightning hit, like very close, and we felt a little tingle in our bodies, and figured that was [time to go],” Jeff Majias told The Epoch Times.
They pointed to the vicinity of a small motel less than 100 yards away from their spot and said that’s where the lightning bolt hit.
The National Weather Service’s Tampa Bay station confirmed that the morning storm brought several dozen lightning strikes just to the St. Pete Beach area, and radar indicated that several more storms were affecting Fourth of July celebrations farther south, from Fort DeSoto to Venice Beach.
At the Pinellas County Public Access point at 4700 Gulf Boulevard, people were seen returning to their cars around noon as the rain and lightning continued to come down around them, moving with varying levels of urgency. Some decided to pack up and leave. But others, like Mejias and his family, sat in their vehicles and waited for the storm to pass.
Several emergency vehicles, including multiple ambulances, gathered in the parking lot in response to the incident around 12:19 p.m. Two adults received care on-site, and a 17-year-old girl was transported to Tampa General Hospital as a trauma alert, according to local reports.
Mejias and his siblings pointed in the direction where they said people got struck by lightning. They said one woman was taken in the ambulance, and another was shaking.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the St. Pete Beach Fire Department’s public relations officer for more information. Tampa General Hospital was unable to confirm whether or not the teenager was received.
The National Weather Service Tampa Bay station confirmed there were three people with lightning strike injuries from St. Pete Beach.
Radar imagery indicating the confirmed lightning strikes as a storm passed over St. Pete Beach, Fla., on July 4, 2025. (Screenshot/WeatherWise)
After about an hour, the lightning and thunder appeared to pass, emergency vehicles departed the scene, and the Mejias family and others returned to the beach.
Mejias and his family have gathered at the same spot for the Fourth of July for the past 30 years, rain or shine. It was a tradition started by his grandfather, who passed away in 2016, but is continued by the surviving family. His brother and mother said that this year had to be the first time in 20 years that the rain and lightning were so intense that they had to evacuate to their cars.
When they returned, they saw that the tents, beach games, and their food were still standing, and they still had half the day to make the most of their holiday tradition.
“You wait it out,” Mejias’s sister Stephanie told The Epoch Times. “When you know it’s close, you take cover, and then you wait it out in the car, and you come back. That’s how true Floridians do it. You don’t leave because [the storm] will pass.”
