Summer is obviously our hottest time of the year, but it’s also the wettest. July and August historically are the months in which we have the highest average rainfall in southern New Mexico.
With rain can come lightning, and too often it’s taken lightly.
Think of how many times you’ve heard the weather forecast calling for a slight chance of thunderstorms, but you only see a few fluffy white clouds overhead. So you go outside to work, walk, run, or anything and minutes later you hear thunder and see lightning in the distance.
What would you do? Keep doing what you’re doing until the thunder and lightning get closer? Go find a metal bench under a tree to see what happens? The correct answer should actually be to get indoors.
According to the National Weather Service, there were 26 deaths due to lightning in 2015 and two were in New Mexico. Although the odds of being struck by lightning in a given year are only around 1 in 500,000, some factors can put us at greater risk. Lightning most often strikes people who work outside or engage in outdoor recreational activities.
Those struck who live to tell the tale tend to experience complications such as memory loss, insomnia and depression, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Luckily, it’s fairly easy protect yourself from that risk even if you are caught outdoors when lightning is close by. The New Mexico Department of Health and the CDC recommend the following ways for protecting yourself both indoors and out:
Outdoors:
- If the weather forecast calls for thunderstorms, postpone your trip or activity.
- Remember: When thunder roars, go indoors. Find a safe, enclosed shelter.
- The main lightning safety guide is the 30-30 rule. After you see lightning, start counting to 30. If you hear thunder before you reach 30, go indoors. Suspend activities for at least 30 minutes after the last clap of thunder.
- If no shelter is available, crouch low, with as little of your body touching the ground as possible. Lightning causes electric currents along the top of the ground that can be deadly over 100 feet away.
- Stay away from concrete floors or walls. Lightning can travel through any metal wires or bars in concrete walls or flooring.
Although you should move into a non-concrete structure if possible, being indoors does not automatically protect you from lightning. In fact, about one-third of lightning-strike injuries occur indoors.
Safety precautions indoors
- Avoid water during a thunderstorm. Lightning can travel through plumbing.
- Avoid electronic equipment of all types. Lightning can travel through electrical systems and radio and television reception systems.
- Avoid corded phones. However, cordless or cellular phones are safe to use during a storm.
- Avoid concrete floors and walls.
Learn and follow these safety rules to keep yourself safe from lightning, and for more information visit http://www.srh.noaa.gov/abq/?n=prepawaremonsoonlightning.