Don’t trust your instincts alone when it comes to storm safety, but instead use your common sense and get out of the rain.
That’s the message spread this week by meteorologists at Environment Canada and electricity providers at FortisAlberta.
“Remember that 80 per cent of storm fatalities were from lightning and most of those came without warning,” said Dan Kulak, Environment Canada meteorologist.
People may be struck by lightning because they think a storm is insignificant or they go outside too soon, Kulak said.
“They think that it’s not a big storm so they don’t take safety precautions,” he said. “But remember the saying, ‘bolt from the blue.’ That comes from a storm that doesn’t appear to have lightning, but has thunder. Every storm that has thunder has lightning.”
FortisAlberta raised the safety issue this week with its “top 10 lightning hot spots.” This list excludes the most active storm areas of the province — the foothills and the Red Deer region.
The 10-year Environment Canada lightning count varies greatly and lists St. Albert in fourth place among urban communities, with 200 ground strikes between 1999 and 2008. Red Deer had 464 strikes in the same period and Windsor, Ont. ranked highest in Canada with 3,297 strikes.
However you count the strikes, it only takes one direct lightning hit to be deadly.
“Take shelter when you can count 30 seconds or less between lightning and thunder,” FortisAlberta warned. Kulak agreed with that statistic.
“When thunder roars, go indoors,” he said. “If you see a flash, and can count to 30 seconds before the thunder, that storm is 10 kilometres away.”
If you are caught outdoors, take shelter. Stay away from objects that conduct electricity like water, tractors, golf clubs and lawn mowers. Avoid being in the highest point in an open area and stay away from tall objects like trees, hilltops and poles.
Use only battery-operated appliances indoors and don’t handle electrical equipment or telephones, warned FortisAlberta. Cell phones are the safest method of communication.
If you see a downed power line or experilence an outage, call 310-WIRE.
