How to stay safe when lightning strikes
It was a bright and clear Monday morning when I unlocked the door to the office. Nosotros had a huge thunderstorm the night earlier, and as I walked in something was different, at that place was a different smell in the air that took me a minute or two to identify. It was ozone! My steps quickened as I walked back to the reckoner room in the back where about of the employees of our pocket-size software business firm worked.
When I entered the room, the scent of burnt electronics filled my nostrils and I stood in that location in shock. The building must accept taken a directly hit from a lightning bolt during the night. Information technology had passed completely through our industrial strength surge protector and had shorted out our evolution minicomputer, as well equally half a dozen loftier-end CRT terminals.
It would be a couple of days to get the new equipment in place, but thankfully nobody was hurt. Fortunately, we had the foresight to keep offsite backups of our development and operating software, otherwise the whole company would have been dead in the water.
That morning was a very sobering ane, with the states realizing how much power a lightning strike has and how much nosotros each demand to know almost lightning and how to stay safe when it is nearby.
HOW LIGHTNING FORMS
Lightning is formed in cumulonimbus clouds, those tall fluffy clouds nosotros refer to as thunderheads. The extremely tall nature of this blazon of cloud, up to 25,000 feet to a higher place sea level, allows updrafts of warm moist air to move upward until the cold at college altitudes causes the moist air to cool and commencement to fall in the grade of a downdraft.
At the top of this round route, the moist air turns to ice and eventually hail. As more and more ice and hail particles grade, they bounce off of each other giving more and more of them negative charges. When enough of these negative charges gather at the bottom of the cloud, a lightning bolt can form which then travels to the ground by its attraction to the positive charges in the earth.
WHAT LIGHTNING CAN Exercise
Equally mentioned in a higher place, lightning is the most powerful forcefulness in nature and it can practice serious impairment to anything that information technology strikes. Electrical appliances that are in the grounding path of a lightning strike will be short-circuited or burned out. Trees, lumber, or annihilation with significant moisture in it, will immediately boil and explode.
People struck by lightning may or may not be killed or injured, depending on how well they were grounded at the time of the strike. Lightning also does non accept to strike an object directly to damage it. The current may flow along the footing or along wires or pipes from the initial strike and then hit something a brusk altitude away.
HOW TO Go Advanced WARNING
There is only i fashion to be condom in a lightning storm, and that is to non be out in the open when information technology strikes, just within of some form of shelter that will channel whatever electric strike downward into the ground. Lightning tin strike from as far away every bit 10 miles or more than, even when no storm clouds are visible in the heaven. There are warning signs that we can use to get to safety earlier a strike occurs.
Spotter for clouds that are growing very chop-chop or when a cloud gets much darker at its base or if it is getting very tall. The darkness comes from the increased level of wet in the cloud and the pinnacle indicates the presence of the updraft and downdraft wheel that forms the ice crystals.
Large, fatty drops of rain are another indication that a thunderstorm is brewing. It also indicates that the drops are getting bigger through the upwards and down cycle.
Audible thunder is another indicator of lightning, sometimes still in the clouds, but oftentimes striking some distance away. The 30-30 dominion will assistance you here. If the fourth dimension between the moment you meet the wink of the lightning strike and you hear the thunder is less than xxx seconds, then the lightning is too close for yous not to be seeking shelter. The second 30 is the number of minutes, at a minimum, you should wait before yous decide to leave your shelter.
Static or popping sounds on an AM radio are also good indicators of too much static electricity in the air which could become lightning. When a strike is imminent, this static may as well manifest itself in the form of a tingling sensation, the hair on your arms or head continuing upwardly, or a soft buzzing or hissing sound.
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM A LIGHTNING STRIKE
The all-time form of shelter is a substantial edifice with metal wiring or pipes that connect to an electrical footing and will therefore channel whatever electrical strike down into the earth. Open structures like picnic pavilions, bus shelters or tents that do not have metal connected to ground will not provide acceptable protection; you lot demand the mass and the grounding of metal in the structure for the immense power in the lightning bolt to menses to ground in the globe and not into you or whatever electrical gear nearby.
Regardless of whether you lot are taking shelter inside a building or a vehicle, y'all should avoid touching anything metal which could conduct the lightning into y'all rather than letting it period to the electrical ground. Not-wired devices such as cell phones or cordless razors or can openers that are non wired to the basis are rubber to use.
Avoid water pipes, faucets, and anything that is part of the wired conductive circuit in the house to avoid alluring the charge if the lighting strikes the structure. Avoid areas where excessive wet may be nowadays, such every bit a large concrete patio, sidewalks, or sump pumps. Avoid walls where wiring may be in place, equally lightning may jump from one path, such as electrical wiring, to another path in the house, such as plumbing to reach the ground.
The next best shelter, particularly if yous are not near an appropriate building, is an automobile that has a metal roof. Although the wheels will preclude the charge from flowing directly into the earth the charge volition normally jump out of the vehicle and into the earth anyway. Open vehicles like convertibles or vehicles with soft shell tops like golf carts or ATVs volition non provide adequate protection. Roll the windows up on the vehicle and do not affect any metal parts. Wireless devices like cell phones, that are not connected to the vehicle are rubber to apply, but not if they are plugged into the vehicle via a charger or USB connector.
Whether in a structure or in a car, you should turn off all electrical devices to reduce the hazard of their beingness damaged should a lightning strike occur. If y'all are in a vehicle and lightning strikes, you should cheque to make sure no damage has been done, such as a leak in the fuel arrangement, which could cause a burn down if another strike happens nearby or if an electrical spark is created by something shorting out.
WHAT IF SOMEONE GETS Striking?
If someone gets hitting by a lightning strike, and they are non killed, they will likely exist in need of immediate CPR. The current standard for giving CPR is to first make sure you and the person are safe; next, give xxx chest compressions followed by two rescue breaths, and then repeat until they recover. First aid for burns may also be needed if the person has 2d or third caste burns, either from the strike or from electrical devices. And, of course, ever treat any injured person for daze.
GIVE A Petty RESPECT
So, as you can see, we demand to requite lightning the respect that information technology deserves. Keep an center out for the signs that a storm or strike may be coming. Get to a sheltered location as soon as possible rather than doing the lightning crouch or looking for a ditch to lay in. And acquire to do CPR and then you tin help someone who does become struck
DON'T Apply THE LIGHTNING Hunker
The National Weather Service used to recommend using the lightning crouch if y'all are stuck out in the open when lightning strikes. It fabricated that recommendation because information technology felt the hunker minimized your likelihood of being the point that lightning would strike. However, in 2008, information technology changed that advice because they institute that it didn't matter. It decided to base of operations its recommendation on providing a significant level of safety, which the crouch did not provide. Your best form of action is to go out of the dangerous situation by doing the following: > Programme ahead. (That includes knowing where you'll go for safety) > Listen to the forecast. > Abolish or postpone activities if thunderstorms are in the forecast. > Monitor weather weather condition. > Have action early on and then you have time to become to a prophylactic identify. > Get within a substantial edifice or hard-topped metal vehicle earlier threatening weather arrives. > If you hear thunder, get to the safe place immediately.
LIGHTNING MYTHS AND FACTS
MYTH: Lightning never strikes the aforementioned identify twice.
FACT: Lightning often strikes the same identify repeatedly, especially if it'south a alpine, pointy, isolated object. The Empire State Building is hit nearly 100 times a yr.
MYTH: If it'southward not raining or there aren't clouds overhead, you're safe from lightning.
FACT: Lightning oft strikes more than iii miles from the center of the thunderstorm, far outside the rain or thunderstorm deject. "Bolts from the blue" tin strike 10-15 miles from the thunderstorm.
MYTH: Rubber tires on a auto protect you from lightning by insulating you from the ground.
FACT: About cars are safe from lightning, merely it is the metal roof and metal sides that protect you lot, not the rubber tires. Call back, convertibles, motorcycles, bicycles, open-shelled outdoor recreational vehicles and cars with Fiberglas shells offer no protection from lightning. When lightning strikes a vehicle, information technology goes through the metal frame into the basis. Don't lean on doors during a thunderstorm.
MYTH: A lightning victim is electrified. If yous touch them, you'll exist electrocuted.
FACT: The human being body does non store electricity. Information technology is perfectly rubber to touch a lightning victim to requite them first aid. This is the nearly spooky of lightning myths.
MYTH: If exterior in a thunderstorm, you should seek shelter nether a tree to stay dry out.
FACT: Being underneath a tree is the second leading cause of lightning casualties. Better to get wet than fried.
MYTH: If you are in a firm, you are 100 percent prophylactic from lightning.
FACT: A house is a safe place to be during a thunderstorm every bit long equally y'all avoid anything that conducts electricity. This ways staying away from corded phones, electrical appliances, wires, TV cables, computers, plumbing, metal doors and windows. Windows are chancy for two reasons: wind generated during a thunderstorm can accident objects into the window, breaking it and causing glass to shatter and second, in older homes, in rare instances, lightning tin come in cracks in the sides of windows.
MYTH: If thunderstorms threaten while you are exterior playing a game, it is okay to finish it before seeking shelter.
FACT: Many lightning casualties occur because people practise not seek shelter soon enough. No game is worth death or lifelong injuries. Seek proper shelter immediately if you hear thunder. Adults are responsible for the safety of children.
MYTH: Structures with metal, or metal on the body (jewelry, cell phones, MP3 players, watches), attract lightning.
FACT: Height, pointy shape, and isolation are the dominant factors controlling where a lightning bolt will strike. The presence of metal makes admittedly no departure on where lightning strikes. Mountains are made of stone but go struck by lightning many times a twelvemonth. When lightning threatens, accept proper protective activeness immediately by seeking a safe shelter and don't waste matter time removing metal. While metal does not attract lightning, it does comport it, then stay away from metal fences, railing, bleachers, etc.
MYTH: If trapped outside and lightning is nearly to strike, I should lie flat on the ground.
FACT: Lying flat increases your risk of beingness affected by potentially deadly ground electric current. If you are defenseless exterior in a thunderstorm, you keep moving toward a rubber shelter.
Editors Note: A version of this article get-go appeared in the Jan 2015 print effect of American Survival Guide.
Source: https://www.americanoutdoor.guide/survival-skills/stay-safe-during-lightning-storm/
Posted by: landissclows1999.blogspot.com
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