A Quick Look At Surprising Lightning Facts for NASCAR Fans

With the recent experience we've had in the NASCAR industry with lightning, I thought I'd take a peek at some basic facts about lightning, and it seems I was rather surprised by a few things I found out.  Things like landline phone dangers, concrete hazards and that even blue skies don't mean you are safe from lightning!

Check out some of the details I saw on a NatGeo page:

Did you know that rubber shoes don't protect you from lightning strikes?  Or that lightning is one of the leading causes of weather-related death in the U.S.?

There are roughly 25 million lightning land strikes each year and that the odds of being hit by lightning are an estimated 1 in 700k.  Lightning also occurs during volcanic eruptions, intense forest fires, very heavy snowstorms and hurricanes.

Lightning has also been known to travel from its source to up to 10 miles away.  Yea... you don't even need to see it happening to be threatened by it.

If you can hear thunder, you are within that 10-mile danger zone.  But if you see lightning off in the distance and it takes less than 30 seconds to hear the accompanying thunder clap, then you're within 6 miles of the source and that's the time to consider taking precautions. (Of course I'm betting none of us ever will.  Humans are silly that way.)

The crazy part with this 10-mile danger radius is that you can even be hit by lightning when you're under blue skies.

During lightning storms, even indoors you need to take precautions such as staying away from windows and doors and landline telephones.  I recall an old fact from some years back that roughly 5 people a year die on the phone, from lightning coursing through the wires.

And on the bit about windows, I've been looking out a window when lightning hit my house once.  One second, I'm watching the weather.  After a loud clack and a bright flash, all I could hear was wind and when my vision returned, my window was a molten glob of hardened glass hanging from what was left of the pane.

Shelters that don't provide any mechanism for grounding (plumbing or electrical wiring) is NOT safe.

DO NOT lie on or be near concrete, because of the metal reinforcement bars it usually contains, that's not a good thing.

Here's a myth buster - Lightning CAN and DOES strike the same place twice.

Being in a car can be safe, as long as you're not touching the metal siding.

Don't be the tallest object in any location during a storm. (Crap!  I'm 6'2".)

Though this information may not help us avoid being hit by lightning, maybe, just maybe, it can help at least one person be a bit safer from the hazards of lightning.  Admittedly, 1 in 700,000 doesn't seem like all that big a chance, but there's a family of one NASCAR fan that will argue that point right now.

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[National Geographic]