You should wait 30 minutes from the last time you heard thunder to leave the vehicle, according to the weather service.īikers or motorcyclists who hear thunder should pull over at a safe building and also wait until 30 minutes have passed since the last rumble. If you hear thunder while camping or at the beach, without access to a large building, you should seek shelter in your vehicle immediately. A tent or smaller shelter offers no such protection. This is because when lightning hits a home or other building, it travels through the plumbing and wiring to grounded rods that safely channel all that electricity into the earth. Tents, sheds, dugouts and picnic shelters are not safe from lightning strikes. “Anywhere outside of those two locations is not safe.”Ī substantial building means a structure with proper wiring and plumbing, Holle explained. “The most important thing is that you’re safe inside of a large substantial building or a fully enclosed, metal-top vehicle,” Ron Holle, a meteorologist and lightning safety specialist at the National Lightning Safety Council, told CNN. The National Weather Service has a simple but effective slogan: “When thunder roars, go indoors.”Īs soon as you hear thunder, see lightning or the sky looks threatening, you should head indoors as quickly as possible. Still – here are a few things you can do to lower your chances. It’s also worth noting 90% of lightning strike victims survive. So far, 14 people have died from lightning strikes in the US in 2022, according to the National Weather Service – up from 11 deaths in 2021.īut these are tiny groups considering the nation’s population numbers over 300 million and there are over 25 million lightning strikes in the US per year, the weather service says. And in early August, lightning killed three people sheltering under a tree near the White House. On Friday, a lightning strike killed a mom picking up her child from school in Florida. But lightning does occasionally strike humans, as a few recent high-profile cases made clear. Most aircraft have small 'sticks' on parts of the wings and tail, known as 'static wicks,' designed to conduct lightning safely away from the aircraft.There are undoubtedly more pressing dangers than being hit by lightning: The chance of being struck is less than one in a million, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The electricity then exits the plane into the atmosphere from either the aircraft's wings or tail. The lightning will, for example, strike below the cockpit window and then travel through the outer metal of the plane before being discharged. Because engineers know how lightning works, aircraft are built to withstand lightning strikes. Most lightning strikes on commercial aircraft usually happen on the front side of the cockpit, with the aluminum edge of the cockpit window attracting the charge. Most lightning strikes on aircraft happen at an altitude of 5,000 to 15,000 feet as the aircraft takes off or lands. During the lightning, the air is heated up, which causes the sound that we call thunder. The lightning then passes through the air seeking out a negative charge in another cloud or a spot on the ground. When the charge at the bottom is strong enough, the cloud releases its energy as lightning.
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