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Lightning Safety Awareness Week
Mon Jun 21, 2004
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It’s Lightning Safety Week. Here on The Weather Notebook.
On a yearly basis, lightning kills more Americans than any natural disaster save floods. Hi, I’m Bryan Yeaton, and this is The Weather Notebook.
We bring that up because today begins Lightning Safety Awareness Week, and we have some tips to help keep you safer during lightning season. And mark that I said safer, because, though there are many things we can do to put the odds more in our favor, sometimes, lightning can do whatever its little plasma heart desires.
Probably the simplest rule to remember is: if you can hear the thunder, you are in range of the lightning. The bolt can often strike six or more miles in front of the storm. So, don’t wait until the clouds are on top of you to seek shelter.
Speaking of shelter, where might you find some good places to be, or not to be? Since lightning seeks the easiest path to ground—which is usually the shortest—being on or near the tallest object is not a good idea. Get off mountains and ridges, stop painting the church steeple, and don’t hide under trees. And golfers: it’s not your metal clubs that will get you zapped, but your propensity to seek the shelter of those stately pines and oaks.
Where should you be? Inside a sturdy building, where the wiring actually helps ground the charge So if you are connected to any electrical device—computer, Play Station, or telephone—you are in the hot zone.
Here’s my favorite lightning myth. Are you safer inside a car than outside? Yes. but not because of the tires; the lightning travels around the outside of your metal car. And the tires? There’s a good chance they’ll explode.
For lots more safety information, head to our website: www.weathernotebook.org. We are supported by Subaru and The National Science Foundation.
Today's Links
Lightning Safety Week
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/Greatfalls/tfx.php?TEXT+law.html
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