When Thunder Roars, Go Indoors - Looking At Lightning | Environment

Spring Hill, Florida -- As we come up on Memorial Day weekend, I want to talk about Florida's biggest weather threat, lightning.... 

Many of you will likely be outdoors this weekend, celebrating Memorial Day. Some of you may even go to a local beach. When participating in any outdoor activity, it is important to know what the weather will be like. While major thunderstorms are not expected this weekend, there is still a chance for a few isolated showers and thunderstorms. Already today, showers have popped up across the Tampa Bay Area.

Lightning is Florida's biggest weather threat, although when asked to name a Florida weather feature, you would probably think about hurricanes first. Florida is the lightning capital of America, with the most frequent lightning occurence of anywhere in the world except Central Africa. Because of this, lightning safety is extremely important. Although no place is perfectly safe from lightning, there are steps you can take to protect yourself from being hurt by it.

The safest place to be in a thunderstorm is indoors, away from windows. You should be careful to not take a shower, run water, or talk on the phone, as lightning is attracted to water, and can easily strike your phone line. If caught outdoors, people will often stand under trees, thinking they're safe. What they are really doing is putting themselves in more danger. Lightning likes to take the quickest path to the ground, and is attracted to tall objects.

Due to this, standing under a tree will only increase the risk of injury from the tree falling on you after it has been struck, or has caught fire. If you are caught outdoors in a thunderstorm, the best thing to do is get inside a sturdy building right away. If you are unable to do this, a car will provide some protection. It is a myth that the rubber tires on your car absorb or deflect lightning. It is actually the metal frame of the car that re-routes the lightning to the ground. It is important to not be touching any metal when taking refuge in your car in a thunderstorm.

You can keep track of Florida's lightning activity with WTSP's lightning tracker.

Below are some lightning statistics from the National Weather Service.

Deaths due to weather/weather related phenomena in Florida: 1959 - 1993 (from Storm Data)

Lightning

53.1%

Drowning

16.1%

Tornadoes

12.9%

Hurricanes

8.7%

Wind

4.2%

Cold

3.5%

Others

1.5%

Total number of lightning casualties in Florida between the years 1959 and 2007:

Killed

449

Injured

1788

Average number of lightning casualties nationwide between the years 1995 and 2007:

Killed

48

Injured

273

Top 10 States with most lightning casualties (deaths + injuries), 1959 - 2004.

Rank

State

# Casualties (Deaths + Injuries)

1

Florida

2117

2

North Carolina

818

3

Michigan

815

4

Pennsylvania

760

5

New York

749

6

Texas

716

7

Ohio

671

8

Colorado

602

9

Georgia

586

10

Tennessee

554