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LIGHTNING STRIKE TV

An inside room is generally safe, but a home equipped with a professionally installed lightning protection system is the safest shelter available. Don’t stand near a window to watch the lightning.

LIGHTNING STRIKE TV

You must avoid any conducting path leading outside, such as electrical appliances, wires, TV cables, plumbing, metal doors or metal window frames. Fact: While a house is the safest place you can be during a storm, just going inside isn’t enough.Myth #9 – A house will always keep you safe from lightning.If lightning does happen to hit one area of the fence-even a long distance away-the metal can conduct the electricity and electrocute you. However, touching or being near metal objects, such as a fence, can be unsafe when thunderstorms are nearby. Height, pointy shape and isolation are the dominant factors in whether lightning will strike an object (including you). Fact: The presence of metal makes very little difference in determining where lightning will strike.Myth #8 – Wearing metal on your body attracts lightning.It is perfectly safe to touch a lightning victim to give them first aid. Fact: The human body doesn’t store electricity.Myth #7 – If you touch a lightning victim, you'll be electrocuted.Lightning generates potentially deadly electrical currents along the ground in all directions-by lying down, you're providing more potential points on your body to hit. Fact: Lying flat on the ground makes you more vulnerable to electrocution, not less.Myth #6 – If you're outside in a storm, lie flat on the ground.Convertibles, motorcycles, bikes, open shelled outdoor recreation vehicles and cars with plastic or fiberglass shells offer no lightning protection at all. But most vehicles are actually safe because the metal roof and sides divert lightning around you-the rubber tires have little to do with keeping you safe. Fact: True, being in a car will likely protect you.

Myth #5 – A car's rubber tires will protect you from lightning.

Though infrequent, “bolts from the blue” have been known to strike areas as distant as 10 miles from their thunderstorm origins, where the skies appear clear.

Fact: Lightning often strikes more than three miles from the thunderstorm, far outside the rain or even the thunderstorm cloud.

Myth #4 – If you don't see rain or clouds, you're safe.

Being underneath a tree is the second leading cause of lightning casualties. If lightning does hit the tree, there’s the chance that a “ground charge” will spread out from the tree in all directions.

Fact: Sheltering under a tree is just about the worst thing you can do.

Myth #3 – If you're stuck in a thunderstorm, being under a tree is better than no shelter at all.Lightning may hit the ground instead of a tree, cars instead of nearby telephone poles, and parking lots instead of buildings. Fact: Lightning is indiscriminate and it can find you anywhere.Myth #2 – Lightning only strikes the tallest objects.The Empire State Building was once used as a lightning laboratory because it is hit nearly 25 times per year, and has been known to have been hit up to a dozen times during a single storm. Fact: Lightning often strikes the same place repeatedly, especially if it’s a tall, pointy, isolated object.Myth #1 – Lightning never strikes twice in the same place.

But as one of these options may not be available to you, your safety and wellbeing may depend on knowing the difference between these lightning myths and the facts.

Property damage from lightning is covered by standard homeowners insurance for your home, and the comprehensive portion of an auto policy for your car-but bodily harm from lightning isn't easily remedied.ĭuring a thunderstorm, it's best to take shelter in a house, other structure or a hard-topped, fully enclosed vehicle. At any given time on our planet Earth, there are 1,800 thunderstorms in progress-and with them comes lightning.