FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – This is National Lightning Safety Awareness Week. As summertime showers and thunderstorms impact the area, this is a good time to brush up on what makes lightning so dangerous.
First off, lightning is a visible electrical discharge produced by a thunderstorm. Lightning strikes can be both positive and negative, but the positive ones can be the most dangerous. Lightning strikes can be five times hotter than the surface of the sun at approximately 50,000 °F.
Warning Coordination Meteorologist Dustin Norman with the National Weather Service says that “Positive strikes…when you look at a lightning strike, you typically won’t see it pulse…it’ll just look like one single flash. Positive strikes are the ones that typically occur away from a thunderstorm and they’re a lot more dangerous because they reach out from higher up in the storm, and by reaching out from higher up in the cloud, they have to travel farther…carry more voltage, and so, positive strikes tend to be a lot more lethal, tend to start more fires…house fires, wildfires, etc…”
Here are some fast facts about lightning. About 25 million lightning strikes occur each year in the United States, any of which could be deadly. Lightning can occur 10 miles or more away from the actual thunderstorm, which makes lightning a threat well before or after the storm has passed. Hundreds of injuries occur and about 20 deaths per year take place each year in the United States from lightning.
There are some myths out there regarding lightning. You may think you are safe under a tree, you are safe if it is not raining outside, and you are completely safe inside. Actually, lightning can still hurt you if it hits a tree, lightning can occur before and after it rains, and lightning injuries can still take place indoors…
Let’s take a look at how you can stay safe outside. You should always monitor the forecast and go indoors when storms approach. If you can hear thunder, this is when you need to take action and move inside a sturdy, enclosed structure. You should then wait until 30 minutes after the last thunder is heard to be safe before going back outside.
What if you can’t get inside a building though? Your vehicle is a place where you can be protected, as Jeff Lands found out two years ago in Van Wert, Ohio. Click below to read more…
Norman says that a vehicle is a great alternative if necessary. “Vehicles are safe because there is like a Faraday principle…Faraday cage. Lightning hits the metal, travels around you…does not travel through you. So, that’s the reason why vehicles are safe. You want to make sure though that the windows are rolled up…you’re not in a soft top or a convertible…you want to make sure it’s a hard top vehicle with the windows rolled up. Try not to touch any electronics or anything else during a lightning storm, but otherwise you should be pretty safe inside of a vehicle.”
If you do find your way into a building though, you still are not completely safe. Avoid contact with any items plugged into electrical outlets and avoid all plumbing, such as sinks and tubs. You should also keep away from outside doors and windows, plus only use phones without a cord, such as your cell phone.
Lightning can still hit buildings though, including during the infamous St. Mary’s Church fire in downtown Fort Wayne back in 1993. You can view the historic footage below. Nowadays, buildings can be equipped with lightning rods and accompanying fire protection systems to properly intercept and manage a strike.
Be safe when lightning threatens! To track all of our upcoming chances for thunderstorms, visit our WANE 15 Weather Page.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
