How to stay safe during thunderstorm season

Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, suggests checking weather forecasts regularly and reconsidering outdoor plans if a thunderstorm is coming, especially if it’s near water. Beaches are dangerous because lightning tends to strike the tallest object and water is a good conductor of electricity, so staying underwater during a thunderstorm is a bad idea. Vagasky also emphasizes that no place outdoors is safe during a thunderstorm. So when a storm hits, take shelter indoors. If you see clouds gathering, hear thunder, or see lightning, get to safety quickly.

Two safe places to be during a thunderstorm are a sturdy structure or a vehicle with a metal enclosure. A structure such as a house, store, office, or other structure has four walls and a roof, where electrical wires and water pipes are protected inside the walls. If lightning strikes the structure or is nearby, the electricity from the lightning will travel through the walls. In contrast, a tent or a garden shed is not a safe place.

If people are in a sealed metal vehicle during a thunderstorm and lightning strikes, electricity will travel through the metal. Golf carts and convertibles are not safe during a lightning strike. Stay away from trees, especially tall, isolated trees, Vagasky says. If someone is struck by lightning, call 911 and get immediate first aid. About 90 percent of victims survive but need immediate medical attention.

As the weather warms, people spend more time outdoors. But summer is also storm season. Lightning strikes about 37 million times a year in the United States, killing an average of 21 people, and there are only a handful of days when there is no lightning across the country. Because many people don’t understand nature’s biggest spark, they take unnecessary risks when storms roll in, according to Popular Science.

Lightning is a giant spark of electricity in the atmosphere, classified based on whether it reaches the ground or not. Cloud-to-cloud lightning is any lightning that does not reach the ground, while cloud-to-ground or ground-to-cloud lightning is lightning that strikes objects on the ground. Cloud-to-ground lightning accounts for only 10-50% of lightning in a thunderstorm, but it can cause a lot of damage, including fires, deaths, and injuries, so it’s important to know where lightning strikes.

Lightning occurs when rain, ice crystals, and a type of hail collide in a thunderstorm cloud. As these particles collide, they exchange electrons, creating an electrical charge in the cloud. Because most of the charge is contained within the cloud, most lightning strikes between clouds. When the charge in a cloud is very strong, it can cause opposite charges to build up on the ground, causing lightning to strike from the cloud to the ground. Researchers still don’t know exactly what triggers lightning strikes.

Lightning can occur anytime thunderstorm conditions such as humidity, atmospheric instability, and rising air exist. Lightning is seasonal. The majority of lightning in the United States occurs in June, July, or August. More than 60% of the year’s lightning strikes occur during those three months. Lightning is less common in the winter, but can still occur (about 2% of the annual lightning strike). Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Mississippi lead the nation in total lightning strikes.