TN Severe Weather Awareness Week: Lightning

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (WDEF) – Severe Weather Awareness Week in Tennessee continues today with a focus on lightning.

If you can hear thunder, you are in danger of lightning even if it isn’t raining where you are located – even if there is blue sky above your head.

About 25 million lightning strikes occur in the US each year, and yes lightning can – and often does – strike the same place twice. Lightning heats the air around it to be five times hotter than the surface of the sun.

Lightning can strike you directly; it can strike a tree next to you and the current can jump to your body; lightning can strike a tree and the current can travel through the nearby ground to you; lightning can strike a metal object such as as a fence and travel to you.

Lightning can kill or injure you without a direct strike to the person. Over the last 30 years, lightning killed an average 49 people per year. Numbers have been trending down in the last 10 years and 2015 saw 26 fatalities due to lightning.  Four of those in 2015 were in Alabama.

Males accounted 79% of the lightning fatalities between 2006 and 2014.

A 2014 Executive Summary from National Weather Service (NWS) Lightning Safety Specialist John S. Jensenius, Jr notes that while common belief is that golfers account for most lightning fatalities, his 9 year study showed otherwise. From 2006-2014, fishermen accounted for three times more lightning fatalities than golfers. Camping and boating fatalities also accounted for twice as many deaths as golfing. Even soccer accounted for more fatalities than golf.

There is no safe place to be outside during a thunderstorm. Picnic shelters and dugouts are not considered safe by the NWS.

Head inside and stay inside for at least 30 minutes after the last clap of thunder. When inside, the NWS says to avoid electrical equipment & cords (don’t use corded phones), avoid plumbing (don’t wash your hands, take a shower, wash dishes), stay away from windows & doors, and do not lie on concrete floors nor lean against concrete walls.

If you cannot get to shelter, Jensenius says you can significantly lower your risk of being struck by avoiding open areas, tall objects, or being the tallest object; never shelter under tall or isolated trees; and spread out from others in a group.

As the NWS always says, “When thunder roars, go indoors!”