Personal Lightning Safety Tips

1. PLAN in advance your evacuation and safety measures.  When you first see lightning or hear thunder, activate your emergency plan.  Now is the time to go to a building or a vehicle.  Lightning often precedes rain, so don't wait for the rain to begin before suspending activities.
2. IF OUTDOORS...Avoid water.  Avoid the high ground.  Avoid open spaces.  Avoid all metal objects including electric wires, fences, machinery, motors, power tools, etc.  Unsafe places include underneath canopies, small picnic or rain shelters, or near trees.  Where possible, find shelter in a substantial building or in a fully enclosed metal vehicle such as a car, truck or a van with the windows completely shut.  If lightning is striking nearby when you are outside, you should:
   • A. Crouch down.  Put feet together. Place hands over ears to minimize hearing damage from thunder.
   • B. Avoid proximity (minimum of 15 ft.) to other people.
3. IF INDOORS...Avoid water.  Stay away from doors and windows.  Do not use the telephone (including cell-phones).  Take off head sets.  Turn off, unplug, and stay away from appliances, computers, power tools, & TV sets.  Lightning may strike exterior electric and phone lines, inducing shocks to inside equipment.
4. SUSPEND ACTIVITIES for 30 minutes after the last observed lightning or thunder.
5. INJURED PERSONS do not carry an electrical charge and can be handled safely.  Apply First Aid procedures to a lightning victim if you are qualified to do so.  Call 911 or send for help immediately.
6. KNOW YOUR EMERGENCY TELEPHONE NUMBERS.

Top 9 Tips for Lightning Safety

1. No Place Outside Is Safe Near Thunderstorms!
2. Use The '30-30 Rule'!
   • If the time between lightning and thunder is 30 seconds or less, go to a safer location
   • If the lightning can't be seen, just hearing thunder means you should go to a safer location
   • Wait at least 30 minutes after hearing the last thunder before leaving the safer location
3. The Best Safer Location from Lightning Is A Typical House, or Other Fully Enclosed Substantially Constructed Building with Plumbing and Wiring.
4. You can be injured by lightning inside a house.  Stay away from telephones, plumbing, electrical appliances, wires, TV cables, metal doors or metal window frames, or any electrical conducting path leading outside.  Don't watch lightning through a window or open doorway. An inside room is generally best.  The Second Best Safer Location From Lightning Is A Vehicle With A Solid Metal Roof And Metal Sides.
   • But close the windows, and don't touch any conducting path leading outside
   • Convertibles, motorcycles, bicycles, open shelled outdoor recreational vehicles, and cars with plastic or fiberglass roofs and sides offer no lightning protection.  A common lightning myth is that the rubber tires protect you in a car by insulating you from the ground.
     Wrong:  lightning laughs at 2 inches of rubber!  It's the metal that protects you.
5. The top activities for lightning casualties in the U.S. are:
   • Open Fields and Elevated Places
   • Under Trees (or other tall isolated object)
   • Water Related Activities (swimming, boating, fishing, etc.)
   • Golfing
   • Open Vehicles (farm, construction, etc.)
   • Telephone
   • Radio and Radio Equipment

Virginia averages 35 to 45 thunderstorm days per year.  Thunderstorms can occur any day of the year and at any time of the day, but are most common in the late afternoon and evening during the summer months.

Thunderstorms are generally beneficial.  They provide needed rain for crops, plants, and reservoirs.

However, about five percent of thunderstorms become severe and can produce tornadoes, large hail, damaging downburst winds, and heavy rains causing flash floods.  Thunderstorm can develop in less than 30 minutes, allowing little time for warning.

All thunderstorms produce lightning which can be deadly.

The National Weather Service does not issue warnings for ordinary thunderstorms nor for lightning.

The National Weather Service does highlight the potential for thunderstorms in the daily forecasts and statements.

Be alert to the signs of changing weather, such as darking skies, a sudden wind shift and drop in temperature, and having a warning device such as NOAA Weather Radio.

Staying alert and listening to NOAA Weather Radio can mean the difference between life and death when a thunderstorm approaches.