Enlightened advice for lightning strikes

[kickingfrog]

I know that most, if not all, of us are aware of the dangers of lightning. But it can't hurt to put it out there again. We, and our families, are more apt than the general public to be in situations where we are in danger. Be safe. Have fun.

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...y/National/home

 

 

Cut and pasted Globe and Mail article:

 

Enlightened advice for lightning strikes

PETER CHENEY

 

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

 

June 17, 2008 at 3:17 AM EDT

 

TORONTO — Like a shark attack, getting hit by lightning is a matter of luck - the worst kind.

 

Last weekend, a 29-year-old man became the latest victim when a bolt zapped him as he helped his parents build a deck near North Battleford, Sask. Ironically, the sky was clear - a storm had passed, and the heavens were silent. But like the finger of Zeus, a giant column of electrical energy shot down and killed the man and left his mother seriously injured.

 

"It can be unpredictable," says David Phillips of Environment Canada. "You're dealing with huge forces."

 

At the moment, Canada is in the middle of thunderstorm season, which runs from May until September. And this year is proving to be intense. In Toronto, which receives an average of 11,136 lightning strikes a year, the first half of June has produced more than twice as many thunderstorms as usual.

 

 

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(Ninian Carter/The Globe And Mail)

 

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Son helping parents build deck killed by lightning

"It's been very volatile," says Mr. Phillips. "Lots of activity."

 

On average, 10 Canadians are killed by lightning each year, and about 125 more are seriously injured.

 

Getting hit may involve bad planning (like standing on a golf course with an upraised steel as thunder rolls overhead) or plain bad luck. And no one has ever had it worse than U.S. park ranger Roy Sullivan, who became known as The Human Lightning Rod after being hit by lightning seven times between 1942 and 1977. (Mr. Sullivan committed suicide in 1983, apparently distraught over the loss of a woman.)

 

Given Mr. Sullivan's history, relationship problems were not unexpected. Experts say that more than half of married people who survive a lightning strike are divorced soon afterward. Getting hit by lightning can produce a host of physical and mental issues that include everything from heart problems to deafness to memory loss. (There are support groups for survivors.) "You're not the same person afterward," says Mr. Phillips. "It can really change people."

 

If you want to get hit by lightning, the best place in Canada to do it is Southern Ontario, the heart of Canada's thunderstorm alley. (The southern prairies are also considered lightning hot spots.) The most-hit city in Canada is Windsor, which experiences 251 lightning flashes per 100 square kilometres each year.

 

The least likely place to experience lightning is the north - Inuvik experiences only one lightning flash per year, and thunderstorms are unheard of in the Arctic circle region.

 

Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island, is also a good choice for those who dislike lightning; thanks to the area's stable marine climate, it experiences only two days of thunderstorms a year. (Windsor, by comparison, has an average of 33 days of thunderstorms per year, and Toronto has 28.)

 

Over the past decade or so, there have been great advances in the monitoring of thunderstorms. In 1998, Environment Canada set up the Canadian Lightning Detection Network - 81 automatic sensors across the country can detect lightning and send instant reports to a satellite orbiting overhead. Thanks to this, weather forecasters can tell exactly where lightning is occurring.

 

This information has proven valuable in some unexpected ways. A few years ago it helped foil the plans of an Ontario man who thought he had come up with a foolproof way to get his insurance company to pay for the replacement of an expensive refrigerator.

 

After learning that parts for the refrigerator were no longer available, the owner connected the fridge to an arc welder, which sent a massive jolt of electricity through it, destroying its major components. He then filed an insurance claim, saying that the fridge had been zapped by lightning. Unfortunately, the new lightning sensors proved that the weather in the area had been perfect at the time. The claim was denied.

 

Experts say there are countless misconceptions about lightning, and how to avoid it. Take the sneaker myth - many people believe they will be safe if they wear rubber-soled shoes, which would not conduct the electricity into the earth. Wrong. If a lightning bolt strikes you, millions of volts will run through your body, then arc through your Converse into the ground. (Depending on the size of the hit, your body makeup and other variables, the electrical energy may boil your blood, as if you were being executed in a nuclear-powered electric chair.)

 

Instinct often leads to danger. Although you may be drawn to a lone tree because it seems to offer shelter, for example, it actually serves as a natural lightning rod, since it's the highest point around. You are better off staying in an open field, crouching to lower your profile - but don't lie flat, because it makes you more likely to be zapped by a bolt that hits the ground and fans outward.

 

But there are no hard and fast rules. "Lightning is hard to predict," says Mr. Phillips. "No two bolts are the same."

 

*****

 

Savage, unpredictable nature

 

The thunderstorm season is upon us and Toronto alone gets more than 11,000 lightning strikes a year.

 

LIGHTNING STRIKE INJURIES

 

-Brain damage

 

-Eye damage

 

-Deafness, ringing ears

 

-Central nervous system: coma, seizures, amnesia, paralysis

 

-Respiratory system damage

 

-Heart Attack

 

*****

 

BE PREPARED

 

Lighting can conduct through power lines, tall objects, high places, water; golf clubs; fishing poles, bicycles and metal cleats in shoes.

 

KEEP SAFE

 

Listen to weather forecasts, have a lightning safety plan, seek shelter in substantial structure (keep away from windows) or vehicle (lightning moves on the outer surface of metal objects - do not touch metal inside vehicle).

 

SOURCE: ENVIRONMENT CANADA

[lunkerbasshunter]

when i go fishing, parry sound, nipissing, simcoe, i always set weather warnings from the weather network to come in via email on my black berry so i know when storms are coming in.

 

last week i was fishing ahmic lake and a warning came in for burks falls area. i tottally didnt see any signs but went closer in anyway. sure enough about 20 minutes later i heard thunder then the dark clouds came in and as i was sitting in my cabin looking at the email 30 minutes after it was sent the hail, lightning and rain started.

 

be safe out there everyone!

 

cheers!

[Spiel]

....Nothing I hate more than getting caught out on the water during an electrical storm. Has happened more than once and when the hair on my arms is standing vertical it scares the crap out me. These days I'm off and running for shore at the first signs of potential lightning. Sheeeeesh, gets me nervous just thinking about it.

[BITEME]

Nasty Nasty Nasty Stuff

 

I have had braided line float of the water on Pigeon as a storm rolled in

Saw a guy get hit one time at a Deep Purple Concert at the Grove in Oakville he was walking across the field and ZOT they brought him to the first aid tent he was quite delerious but managed to survive his running shoes were blown apart on his feet looked like a seen from the road runner when the coyote sticks his mitt in the end of a gun all flower petaled he also had a chain on his neck with a cross the voltage vapourized it but left a perfect imprint of the chain and the cross in his skin kinda nasty looking at the time but nowadays people pay big money to have that done anyway thats my 2 cents

[kickingfrog]

when i go fishing, parry sound, nipissing, simcoe, i always set weather warnings from the weather network to come in via email on my black berry so i know when storms are coming in.

 

last week i was fishing ahmic lake and a warning came in for burks falls area. i tottally didnt see any signs but went closer in anyway. sure enough about 20 minutes later i heard thunder then the dark clouds came in and as i was sitting in my cabin looking at the email 30 minutes after it was sent the hail, lightning and rain started.

 

be safe out there everyone!

 

cheers!

 

That's a great tip, providing I remember to: bring my phone, turn it on and have coverage.

[Nemo]

Use the 30/30 rule

 

 

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/lightnin...ning_safety.htm

 

 

The 30/30 rule

Any lightning safety plan should incorporate the 30/30 Rule. The 30/30 Rule states that people should seek shelter if the "Flash-To-Bang" delay (length of time in seconds between a lightning flash and its subsequent thunder), is 30 seconds or less, and that they remain under cover until 30 minutes after the final clap of thunder.

 

A 30 second lead time is necessary prior to a storm's arrival because of the possibility of distant strikes. A 30 minute wait after the last thunder is heard is necessary because the trailing storm clouds still carry a lingering charge. This charge can and does occasionally produce lightning on the back edge of a storm, several minutes after the rain has ended.

 

Studies have shown most people struck by lightning are struck not at the height of a thunderstorm, but before and after the storm has peaked. This shows many people are unaware of how far lightning can strike from its parent thunderstorm. DO NOT wait for the rain to start before seeking shelter, and do not leave shelter just because the rain has ended.

[douG]

Thats good, Nemo. This is another good one.

 

That 30 second rule means that the lightning strike was only six miles away, not 30 miles.

[Nemo]

That's good doug. Thanks for sharing. How was your trip?