Many years ago I had a patch in a corn field fairly close to a road one time and very close to a utility pole. not really big maybe the size of a tractor in an oval shape.

I was cultivating and came upon the spot and wondered what had happened. I had a agronomist come and look at it. His first thought was perhaps kids with a water balloon full of glyphosate thrown out had done this ( he had seen that happen before). However there was no balloon remnants that we could find. We dug several plants in the area and could find no sign of root disease either. The above ground part of the plant though was brown and slimy when cut open and had a cooked smell to it. We could find no visible sign of a lightning strike on the ground but finally concluded that must have been the cause. I went back in and replanted it more out of curiosity than anything. The replant corn all came up and survived with no problems.

I was amazed the pole was not hit because of the close proximity to the spot but there was no affected corn between the pole and the spot in the field.

 Sure wish I would have had digital camera then to document this.