Myth: If outside in a thunderstorm, you should seek shelter under a tree to stay dry. Fact: Being underneath a tree is the second leading cause of lightning casualties. Better to get wet than fried!
But taking shelter near a tall, isolated tree is a terrible idea. The lightning can strike the tree and jump to you (a side flash). Plus, you run the serious risk of getting hit by a falling limb once a bolt has made contact.
Stay away from windows and doors, and stay off porches. Do NOT lie on concrete floors or lean on concrete walls during a thunderstorm. Lightning can travel through any metal wires or bars in concrete walls or flooring. Don't use corded phones.
The safest location during a thunderstorm is inside a large enclosed structure with plumbing and electrical wiring. These include shopping centers, schools, office buildings, and private residences.
If you're outdoors and you see lightning or hear thunder, go inside a sturdy building or get inside a hard-top car or truck and close the windows. Avoid utility poles, barbed wire fences, tractors, and motorcycles. Don't lie flat. If your hair stands on end, squat down and put your head between your knees.
Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela is the place on Earth that receives the most lightning strikes. Massive thunderstorms occur on 140-160 nights per year with an average of 28 lightning strikes per minute lasting up to 10 hours at a time. That's as many as 40,000 lightning strikes in one night!
Lightning doesn't strike the ocean as much as land, but when it does,it spreads out over the water, which acts as a conductor. It can hit boats that are nearby, and electrocute fish that are near the surface. If you're at the beach and hear thunder or see lightning, get out of the water.
“The '30-30 Rule' directed people to be in a safe place when there is 30 seconds or less between lightning and its thunder, and to wait 30 minutes or more after hearing the last thunder before leaving the safe place.
Myth: If you are in a house, you are 100% safe from lightning. Fact: A house is a safe place to be during a thunderstorm as long as you avoid anything that conducts electricity. This means staying off corded phones, electrical appliances, wires, TV cables, computers, plumbing, metal doors and windows.
If your hair stands on end, lightning is about to strike you. Drop to your knees and bend forward but don't lie flat on the ground. Wet ground is a good conductor of electricity.
Unplug appliances. Avoid using the telephone or any electrical appliances. If lightning strikes, telephone lines and metal pipes can conduct electricity. Leaving electric lights on, however, does not increase the chances of your home being struck by lightning.
Lightning can travel through plumbing so don't shower or wash hands or dishes during a thunderstorm. Don't ignore that sound, because where there is thunder there is lightning, and lightning can kill or maim in ways you would least expect it. That includes when you are in the shower, tub or even washing dishes.
Although every lightning strike is different, damage to the antenna, electrical system, rear windshield, and tires is common. The heat from a lightning strike is sufficient to partially melt the antenna of a vehicle and can cause what seems like a small explosion of sparks as tiny fragments of metal melt and burn.
Trees are generally taller objects around them. So Lightning current will pass through trees into the earth. But trees are not very good conductors of electricity. So when you go under a tree, current will pass through your body because the human body is a good conductor of electricity.
Some burns can look like Lichtenberg figures, or lines. Lichtenberg lines are long, intricate, wavy burns that can appear on someone temporarily after receiving a massive electric shock. "They don't really stick around. They're these fernlike, superficial burns of the skin," said Claypool.
It felt like a horse hit you in the back of the head, like a mule kick,” he said. “It was almost like getting the wind knocked out of you by a Mack truck.” Immediately afterward, Fasciglione said he felt energized, his entire body tight, ears ringing and then went numb. He suffered no major injuries.
Most indoor lightning casualties and some outdoor casualties are due to conduction. Whether inside or outside, anyone in contact with anything connected to metal wires, plumbing, or metal surfaces that extend outside is at risk.
So animals, particularly large animals, are at higher risk of lightning death than humans. As I report in my book Spark: The Life of Electricity and the Electricity of Life, the most dramatic example of how catastrophic lightning can be for animals comes from a reindeer herd.
Lightning usually strikes an aircraft on the front side of the plane's cockpit. The edge of the cockpit window is a typical point of impact. The aluminium fuselage of the aircraft conducts electricity well, and due to that, the lightning discharge does not affect the inside of the aircraft.
Ice is Critical to the Lightning Process
The collision of ice and water particles causes separation of the positive and negative electric charges in the particles. Positive charged ice particles tend to collect in the upper parts of the storm, with negative charged particles in the middle and lower parts of the storm.
If we track lightning by density and convert from square kilometers to square miles, Florida becomes the clear winner with 285 lightning strikes per square mile in 2022. Louisiana was second at 221 strikes per square mile, with Mississippi (206), Oklahoma (163) and Arkansas (157) rounding out the Top 5.
Four Corners, Florida, outside Orlando, was found to have the highest number of strikes across the country, at 474 per square kilometer in 2022.
Florida is considered the “lightning capital” of the country, with more than 2,000 lightning injuries over the past 50 years.