#Lightning map utah how to
#Lightning map utah windows

Do not use the telephone or any electrical appliances.Your party should put at least 15 feet between each other. Put your hands over your ears and close your eyes. Put your heels together to let the current flow through one leg to the other, and come up on the balls of your feet to minimize ground contact. Squat down and curl up to become as small a target as possible.So minimizing your strike probability is the name of the game. Houses get hit, cars get hit, trees, animals, and people all get hit. There is no completely safe place from lightning. If you have a metal frame pack, sticks, or poles, leave them 100 feet from where you are seeking shelter. Put on your raingear and remove your backpack.If you are above treeline, seek shelter in the lowest area you can reach, preferably with large boulders around so you can get some protection from driving rain behind some smaller boulders. This will help keep you dry and not attract lightning. Come down from high places, seek a valley or depression in the terrain.

#Lightning map utah windows

Shut the windows completely and don’t touch the metal interior. Instead, find shelter in a substantial building, or better still in a fully enclosed metal vehicle such as a car, truck, van. Do not shelter under picnic tables, canopies, inside tents, or near trees.

Credit: USNWS If you do get caught in a storm, follow the advice below: If outdoors: Seek shelter and avoid situations in which you may be vulnerable.īackcountry lightning risk management. Most people do not realize that they can be struck by lightning even when the center of a thunderstorm is 10 miles away and there are blue skies overhead. If you can hear thunder, you are within 10 miles of a storm and can be struck by lightning. Once the thunder has passed, wait another 30 minutes before leaving your shelter, giving the storm time to pass and minimizing your chances of being struck. If it is less than 30 seconds (for every 5 seconds, the storm is 1 mile away), you should already be in shelter. If you do hear thunder, count between the noise and the flash of lightning. Depending on wind, terrain, and distance, you may not hear thunder until lightning is already dangerously close. If a cloud looks ominous, or you see lightning, have your escape or safety plan ready and make sure everybody in your group understands it.

Keep an eye on the conditions and cloud formations during the day.

For example, in the mountains, storms typically form in the afternoon, so plan an early morning hike and aim to be off the summit, into your descent, and below treeline before 1 pm. Understand the weather systems for the area and season. If storms are expected, be more vigilant, or postpone.

Check the weather reports before starting an activity.

Basic rules to minimize your risks during an electrical storm: But there are measures we can take to minimize the risks and ensure we partake in our adventures as safe as possible. So your chances of being struck are probably higher than most. If you’re reading this site, then more than likely, you’re an outdoor kind of person who enjoys hiking, camping, fishing, and being in the mountains. In a strike in the Uinta Mountains, UT, where 3 young sisters were all struck, their father was hailed a hero for the measures he took upon realizing they were in the midst of an electrical storm and saving their lives. More people are outside having fun in areas more susceptible to electrical storms. Summer is the peak season for lightning-related injuries and fatalities (July 4th in particular).

#Lightning map utah how to

Related: Lightning Myths Debunked! Separate the Facts from the Fiction and How to Survive a Lightning Strike.The riskiest activities are fishing, boating, camping, and golf. So the odds of becoming a lightning victim in the US in any given year is 1 in 700,000, and the odds of being struck in your lifetime is 1 in 3000. Ten times that amount are struck but survive. According to the NOAA, the United States averages 51 lightning strike fatalities every year, second only to flooding for deadly weather. Lightning strikes the earth 45 times every single second (that’s 1.4 billion flashes a year). ⁣ Moments after this picture was taken, these brothers were struck by lightning on Moro Rock, CA, 1975. The best way to protect yourself from a lightning strike is to avoid the threat. Lightning is common in the summer months however, it can strike any time of the year. When thunder roars! Lightning is a spark of electricity in the atmosphere between clouds, the air, or the ground. ⁣ When dinos roar, go indoors! Sorry, we meant thunder. Electrosaurus Rex? A bolt of lightning crosses a dark sky above Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park during a past storm.