Lightning Warning System & Safety Tips

Every year in June there is a Lightning Safety Awareness Week to offer information and tips on how to stay safe when there is lightning in the area. The topics include:

• Lightning Science
• Lightning Safety Outdoors
• Lightning Safety Indoors
• Lightning Safety and Sports Activities
• Medical Effects on Lightning Victims

Lightning Science

Lightning is a giant spark of electricity in the atmosphere or between the atmosphere and the ground. In the initial stages of development, air acts as an insulator between the positive and negative charges in the cloud and between the cloud and the ground; however, when the differences in charges becomes too great, this insulating capacity of the air breaks down and there is a rapid discharge of electricity that we know as lightning.

Lightning can occur between opposite charges within the thunderstorm cloud (Intra Cloud Lightning) or between opposite charges in the cloud and on the ground (Cloud-To-Ground Lightning). Cloud-to-ground lightning is divided into two different types of flashes depending on the charge in the cloud where the lightning originates.

Lightning Safety Outdoors

If you absolutely cannot get to safety, you can slightly lessen the threat of being struck with the following tips. But don't kid yourself-you are NOT safe outside. Know the weather patterns of the area you plan to visit. Listen to the weather forecast for the outdoor area you plan to visit. The forecast may be very different from the one near your home. If there is a high chance of thunderstorms, stay inside.

• 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 in a forest, stay near a lower stand of trees.
• If you are in a group, spread out to avoid the current traveling between group members.
• If you are camping in an open area, set up camp in a valley, ravine, or other low area. Remember, a tent offers NO protection from lighting.
• Stay away from water, wet items, such as ropes, and metal objects, such as fences and poles. Water and metal do not attract lightning but they are excellent conductors of electricity. The current from a lightning flash will easily travel for long distances.

Lightning Safety Indoors

Safe shelters are buildings with electricity and plumbing or metal-topped vehicles with the windows closed. Picnic shelters, dugouts and small buildings without plumbing or electricity are not safe. Below are some key safety tips for you, your pets and your home. There are three main ways lightning enters structures: a direct strike, through wires or pipes that extend outside the structure or through the ground. Once in a structure, lightning can travel through the electrical, phone, plumbing, and radio/television reception systems. Lightning can also travel through any metal wires or bars in concrete walls or flooring.

• Stay off corded phones. You can use cellular or cordless phones.
• Don't touch electrical equipment such as computers, TVs, or cords. You can use remote controls safely.
• Avoid plumbing. Do not wash your hands, take a shower, or wash dishes.
• Stay away from exterior windows and doors that might contain metal components leading from outside your home to the inside.
• Stay off balconies, porches and out of open garages or carports.
• Do not lie on concrete floors or lean against concrete walls.
• Protect your pets: Dog houses are not safe shelters. Dogs that are chained to trees or on metal runners are particularly vulnerable to lightning strikes.
• Protect your property: Lightning generates electric surges that can damage electronic equipment some distance from the actual strike. Typical surge protectors will not protect equipment from a lightning strike. Do not unplug equipment during a thunderstorm as there is a risk you could be struck.

Outdoor Sports Activities

In general, a significant lightning threat extends outward from the base of a thunderstorm cloud about 6 to 10 miles. It’s important to account for the time it will take for everyone to get to safety. Here are some criteria that could be used to stop activities.

• If you see lightning: The ability to see lightning varies depending on the time of day, weather conditions, and obstructions such as trees, mountains, etc. In clear air, and especially at night, lightning can be seen from storms more than 10 miles away provided that obstructions don’t limit the view of the thunderstorm.
• If you hear thunder: Thunder can usually be heard for a distance of about 10 miles provided that there is no background noise. Traffic, wind, and precipitation may limit the ability to hear thunder to less than 10 miles. If you hear thunder, though, it’s a safe bet that the storm is within ten miles.
• If the skies look threatening: Thunderstorms can develop directly overhead and some storms may develop lightning just as they move into an area.

Medical Effects on Lightning Victims

Lightning is primarily an injury to the nervous system, often with brain injury and nerve injury. Serious burns seldom occur. People who do not suffer cardiac arrest at the time of the incident may experience lesser symptoms, which often clear over a few days:

• Muscle soreness
• Headache, nausea, stomach upset and other post-concussion types of symptoms
• Mild confusion, memory slowness or mental clouding
• Dizziness, balance problems

Longer Term Problems

Most survivors experience only some of the symptoms below:

• Problems coding new information and accessing old information
• Problems multitasking
• Slower reaction time
• Distractibility
• Irritability and personality change
• Inattentiveness or forgetfulness
• Headaches which do not resolve with usual OTC meds
• Chronic pain from nerve injury
• Ringing in the ears and dizziness or balance problems
• Difficulty sleeping, sometimes sleeping excessively at first and later only two or three hours at a time

Delayed Symptoms

• Personality changes/self-isolation
• Irritability and embarrassment because they can't remember people, job responsibilities and key information
• Difficulty carrying on a conversation
• Depression
• Chronic pain and headaches

Protecting Your Home

Lightning rods (and the accompanying protection system) are designed to protect a house or building from a direct lightning strike and, in particular, a lightning-initiated fire. 

Note that lightning protection systems do not prevent lightning from striking the structure, but rather intercept a lightning strike, provide a conductive path for the harmful electrical discharge to follow (the appropriate UL-listed copper or aluminum cable), and disperse the energy safely into the ground (grounding network). These components must be properly connected (bonded) to minimize the chances of any sparks or side flashes.

While lightning rods help protect a structure from a direct lightning strike, a complete lightning protection system is needed to help prevent harmful electrical surges and possible fires caused by lightning entering a structure via wires and pipes. A complete system also includes electrical surge protection devices for incoming power, data, and communication lines; and surge protection devices for vulnerable appliances.