National Lightning Safety Awareness Week started in 2001 to educate people about the dangers of lightning. Since then, as Maddi Johnson from the Northern Indiana NWS office says, seemingly more people have heeded the warning.
"So, in the 24 years that this annual weeklong Awareness Week has been running, lightning fatalities have actually dropped on average of about 35 percent so in 2001 when this week got started, lightning fatalities were around 55 people a year in the US, and now it's down to About 20 to 25 people on average per year.”
Even with lightning deaths down overall, we are starting to ramp up into one of the more common times to see fatalities caused by lightning strikes, with July being the month with the highest number of fatalities out of any month, likely one of the reasons that the National Lightning Safety Council holds this week later in June.
Again, if you are enjoying the thankfully cooler conditions we will be hopefully seeing as we get closer to the 4th, make sure you are staying safe around storms, as lightning can strike, even 10 miles away from the core of the storm.
The safest place to be during a storm is indoors, but according to the National Weather Service some common household activities hold a heightened lightning risk.
“A lot of people assume ‘oh I’m inside the lightning isn’t going to hurt me” but there are ways to be safe indoors from lightning. So, lightning can strike a home or a building, and when it does, it often follows the electrical wiring or the plumbing to the ground. So, in order to be safe, you don't want to be connected or nearby to any of the wiring or plumbing in a building.”
Maddi Johnson from the Northern Indiana National Weather Service Office says that one of the biggest hazards is holding something that is directly plugged into the electrical system, such as a laptop or phone.
Of course, the lightning is attracted to what is already carrying electricity, but also one of the best conductors of electricity: water.
“That's why, for example, you'll often hear people say like, ‘Oh, don't take a shower during a thunderstorm’, because that, while not inherently dangerous, can be dangerous if lightning were to strike the building you were in.”
One of the best things to do to avoid lightning traveling through the wiring or plumbing is to get a lightning rod, and make sure that it has a direct line to the ground.