Lightening Safety

Personal Lightning Safety Tips


1. PLAN in advance your evacuation and safety measures. When you first see lightning or hear thunder, activate your emergency plan. Now is the time to go to a building or a vehicle. Lightning often precedes rain, so don't wait for the rain to begin before suspending activities.


2. IF OUTDOORS...Avoid water. Avoid the high ground. Avoid open spaces. Avoid all metal objects including electric wires, fences, machinery, motors, power tools, etc. Unsafe places include underneath canopies, small picnic or rain shelters, or near trees. Where possible, find shelter in a substantial building or in a fully enclosed metal vehicle such as a car, truck or a van with the windows completely shut. If lightning is striking nearby when you are outside, you should:

• A. Crouch down. Put feet together. Place hands over ears to minimize hearing damage from thunder.
• B. Avoid proximity (minimum of 15 ft.) to other people.

3. IF INDOORS... Avoid water. Stay away from doors and windows. Do not use the telephone. Take off head sets. Turn off, unplug, and stay away from appliances, computers, power tools, & TV sets. Lightning may strike exterior electric and phone lines, inducing shocks to inside equipment.


4. SUSPEND ACTIVITIES for 30 minutes after the last observed lightning or thunder.


5. INJURED PERSONS do not carry an electrical charge and can be handled safely. Apply First Aid procedures to a lightning victim if you are qualified to do so. Call 911 or send for help immediately.


6. KNOW YOUR EMERGENCY TELEPHONE NUMBERS.


Teach this safety slogan:
"If you can see it, flee it; if you can hear it, clear it."


~  Above article prepared by the National Lightning Safety Institute, Louisville, CO.


Fact: 
Summer is the peak season for one of the nation's deadliest weather phenomena, lightning.  From June 20-26, the National Weather Service is sponsoring Lightning Safety Week. The campaign is designed to lower lightning death and injury rates and America's vulnerability to one of nature's deadliest hazards


A Bit of Humor:
“They say marriages are made in Heaven. But so is thunder and lightning.”  ~  Clint Eastwood
“If you are caught on a golf course during a storm and are afraid of lightning, hold up a 1-iron. Not even God can hit a 1-iron.”  ~
Lee Trevino


Facts:  (These facts are taken from the Automated Weather Source)
1) Average Lightning Stroke is 6 miles long.
2) The Temperature of lightning's return stroke can reach 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The surface of the sun is not even that hot! (around 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit).
3) Once the leading edge of a thunderstorm approaches to within 10 miles, you are at immediate risk due to the possibility of lightning strokes coming from overhanging anvil cloud. Because of this, many lightning deaths and injuries occur with clear skies directly overhead.
4) On average, thunder can only be heard over a distance of 3-4 miles, depending on humidity, terrain and other factors.
5) Average thunderstorm is 6-10 miles wide.
6) Average thunderstorm travels at a rate of 25 mph.


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