It’s Severe Weather Awareness Week, and National Weather Service meteorologist Peter Rogers says today is focused on lightning safety.
“I think one of the big things for people to realize is that sometimes they’re waiting for some kind of a warning, a severe thunderstorm warning, a tornado warning. Well, by definition, all thunderstorms produce lightning, but we don’t use that as a precursor for a warning,” he says. “If we did, we’d be issuing warnings for every thunderstorm. That’s not to say that lightning isn’t important. It certainly is, because it can injure folks, if not kill them, if they’re struck.”
Rogers has this advice to help you determine if you’re at risk of being struck by lightning. “If you can hear thunder, you’re close enough to be struck by the lightning, and when you hear that thunder, you want to get inside, wait for about 30 minutes after that last rumble before heading back out. And once inside, make sure that you’re staying away from windows and anything that could conduct that electricity if a strike was to come nearby,” he says.
Rogers says lightning is typically attracted to the tallest object, though this is not always the case.
(By Patrick Hazelett, KICD, Spencer)