Tag Archives: thunderstorm

Be Prepared When Lightning Strikes: Learn More During National Lightning Safety Awareness Week

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Summer is the peak season for lightning.  Even though lightning typically does not result in mass destruction like other storm-related concerns, lightning can be just as dangerous.  This week is National Lightning Safety Awareness Week.  Use this week to learn more about lightning and how to protect yourself.

Lightning strikes the earth more than 8 million times per day.  Each year in the United States, about 300 people are struck by lightning.  Of those struck, about 30 people are killed and others suffer lifelong disabilities.  The bolts of lightning are hotter than the surface of the sun and can reach temperatures around 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Common unknown facts about lightning:

  • All thunderstorms produce lightning. Lightning often strikes outside the area of heavy rain and may strike as far as 10 miles from any rainfall.
  • If you can hear thunder, you are in danger. Even if the sky is blue, protect yourself from a potential lightning threat.
  • Lightning travels through wiring and plumbing. Do not use a corded phone or take a bath/shower during a storm.

Follow these tips from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to learn more about how to stay safe indoors and outdoors when lightning occurs.  Download the National Weather Service Lightning Safety brochure for you and your family.

 

From Other Blogs: Lightning, preventing and treating sunburn, wildlife disease surveillance & more

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A collection of health and environmental posts from other governmental blogs.

Lightning Safety

The weather forecast calls for a slight chance of thunderstorms, but you can only see a few fluffy white clouds overhead. So you and your tennis partner grab your racquets and balls and head for the tennis court. You spend a few minutes warming up and then —wait! Is that thunder you hear? Was that a lightning flash?

What do you do? Keep playing until the thunder and lightning get closer? Go sit on the metal bench under the trees to see what happens? Or get in your car and drive home?

Correct answer: If no substantial, non-concrete shelter is nearby, get in your car and wait out the storm. — From the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Your Health — Your Environment blog

Don’t feel the burn: Tips for preventing and treating sunburn

It’s that time of year. School is out. The lake is calling your name. The water is warm at the beach, and you want to spend as much time outside as possible. Katie Schill, nurse practitioner with Palmetto Health’s Mobile Clinic, offers some advice on how to prevent sunburns while enjoying time outdoors. — From Flourish, Palmetto Health’s blog

Sniffing Out Disease: Dogs Trained for Wildlife Disease Surveillance

Odin is a Labrador retriever/border collie mix. By watching his wagging tail and alert expression, Colorado State University researcher Dr. Glen Golden can sense he is eager to begin his training.

Odin is one of five dogs recently adopted from shelters and animal rescue centers to become detector dogs for wildlife disease surveillance. The dogs are housed and trained at the USDA-APHIS National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC) in Fort Collins, Colorado. They are part of a collaborative 12-month program to evaluate the effectiveness of training and using dogs to detect and identify waterfowl feces or carcasses infected with avian influenza (AI). — From the US Department of Agriculture blog

Soaking in Another Victory

It’s a four-peat.

For the fourth consecutive year, the University of Maryland, College Park has won high honors in EPA’s Campus RainWorks Challenge, a national collegiate competition to design the best ideas for capturing stormwater on campus before it can harm waterways. — From the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) blog

When Thunder Roars . . . Go Indoors!

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National Lightning Safety Awareness Week was started in 2001 to call attention to this underrated killer. Since then, U.S. lightning fatalities have dropped from about 50 per year to about 30. This reduction in fatalities is largely due to greater awareness of the lightning danger, and people seeking safety when thunderstorms threaten. During National Lightning Safety Awareness Week (June 24-30), we encourage you to learn more about lightning and lightning safety.

There are two main types of lighting:

  • Intra-cloud lightning is an electrical discharge between oppositely charged areas within the thunderstorm cloud.
  • Cloud-to-ground lightning is a discharge between opposite charges in the cloud and on the ground. Cloud-to-ground lightning can either occur between negative charges in the cloud and positive charges on the ground (a negative flash) or between positive charges in the cloud and negative charges on the ground (a positive flash).

You can protect yourself from risk even if you are caught outdoors when lightning is close by.

Safety precautions outdoors

  • If the weather forecast calls for thunderstorms, postpone your trip or activity.
  • Remember: When thunder roars, go indoors. Find a safe, enclosed shelter.
  • The main lightning safety guide is the 30-30 rule. After you see lightning, start counting to 30. If you hear thunder before you reach 30, go indoors. Suspend activities for at least 30 minutes after the last clap of thunder.
  • If no shelter is available, crouch low, with as little of your body touching the ground as possible. Lightning causes electric currents along the top of the ground that can be deadly over 100 feet away.
  • Stay away from concrete floors or walls. Lightning can travel through any metal wires or bars in concrete walls or flooring.
    Although you should move into a non-concrete structure if possible, being indoors does not automatically protect you from lightning. In fact, about one-third of lightning-strike injuries occur indoors.

Safety precautions indoors

  • Avoid water during a thunderstorm. Lightning can travel through plumbing.
  • Avoid electronic equipment of all types. Lightning can travel through electrical systems and radio and television reception systems.
  • Avoid corded phones. However, cordless or cellular phones are safe to use during a storm.
  • Avoid concrete floors and walls.

For additional lightning safety tips, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website.

National Lightning Safety Awareness Week

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“When Thunder Roars, Go Indoors!”

That’s the National Weather Service’s way saying that we must take thunderstorms and the lightning that accompanies them seriously. During this Lightning Safety Awareness Week, which runs June 18-24, take time to learn what to do — and not to do — when thunderstorms threaten.

Lightning ranks among the top storm-related killers in the United States. About two-thirds of lightning-related deaths are associated with outdoor recreational activities. Although lightning injuries and fatalities can occur during any time of the year, deaths caused by lightning are highest during the summer. Generally, July is the month when lightning is most active.

Seek shelter if you’re outside

It is critical to know what to do when thunderstorms head your way. If the forecast calls for thunderstorms, postpone outdoor plans or make sure adequate safe shelter is readily available.

When you hear thunder, go inside. You are not safe anywhere outside. Do not seek shelter under trees. Instead, run to a safe building or vehicle when you first hear thunder, see lightning or observe dark, threatening clouds developing overhead. Safe shelters include homes, offices, shopping centers, and hard-top vehicles with the windows rolled up. Stay inside until 30 minutes after you hear the last clap of thunder.

If you can’t make it inside or in a vehicle, take these precautions:

  • Avoid open fields, the top of a hill or a ridge top.
  • Stay away from tall, isolated trees or other tall objects.
  • If you are camping in an open area, set up camp in a valley, ravine or other low area. Tents do not protect you from lightning.
  • Stay away from water, wet items and metal objects (such as fences and poles). Electricity easily passes through water and metal.

Protect yourself while inside

If you are indoors, be aware that although your home is a safe shelter during a lightning storm, you might still be at risk. About one-third of lightning-strike injuries occur indoors.  When inside:

  • Avoid contact with corded phones, computers, laptops, game systems, washers, dryers or anything connected to an electrical outlet. Lightning can travel through electrical systems.
  • Do not wash your hands, do not take a shower, do not wash dishes, and do not do laundry. Lightning can travel through a building’s plumbing.
  • Stay away from windows and doors, and stay off porches.
  • Do not lie on concrete floors and do not lean against concrete walls. Lightning also can travel through metal wires or bars in concrete walls or flooring.
  • Unplug electrical equipment.

For more information on thunderstorms and lightning safety, visit the following links:

www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/safety-overview.shtml

cdc.gov/disasters/lightning/index.html

 lightning.org/lsa-week/