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Also, I am looking for people who would be willing to help translate this web page into other languages in order to share this information with kids around the world. If you or someone you know can help with this, please send an e-mail message. Lightning stories from other kids are now in English, Spanish and Swahili, the Introduction can be read in French and parts of the web site will also soon be in Chinese.
Many kids weren't as lucky as I was. A girl named Elizabeth, in North Carolina, was camping with other kids when they were hit by lightning. Ashlie, in California, was hit after she got off the school bus. Maria Cristina, lives in Colombia. She was hit when she was playing. You can read their stories if you click on Kids' Stories. Thanks to Maria Cristina and her family, you can also read the stories in Spanish. Gracias a María Cristina y a su familia también puedes leer estas historias en español. Historias de niños en Español. Thanks also to Kim of Kenya for making some of the kid's stories available in Swahili
Grownups have also sent me stories that can teach us about lightning. Grownups' Stories. Also, animals are sometimes hit by lightning. Kids who love horses will want to read Horse Story but be careful, it is a sad story.
I have learned that lightning can strike as far as 10 miles away from a storm. In fact, scientists are now pretty sure that it can strike 15 or more miles away from a cloud. So, if there is blue sky above you and it is not raining, you still might not be safe if you can see or hear a storm in the distance. Lightning can strike anywhere in a big circle around the where the rain is falling. Click on this link to see DRAWINGS and a PHOTO of what I mean on my Flash to Bang page.
There is also what is called "dry lightning." That is when lightning strikes from a cloud that is not making rain. Dry lightning often causes forest fires because there is no rain to stop a fire from spreading.
Sometimes you can feel when lightning might be about to strike. Try holding your arm very close to the front of a color TV screen that is turned on and see how it feels. Look at the hair standing up on your arm. If you are in or near a storm and you feel this way, then you know that you may be in danger. Lightning could strike any second.
Use the lightning safety links below to learn what to do if this happens. They tell about shelters and the "lightning crouch" which was formerly called the "lightning safety position." Also, see my Lightning Crouch page.
What's not cool about a thunder storm is that if you are talking to your best friend on the phone and lightning is close by, you have to say to your friend: "I'm sorry, but I have to hang up now because lightning is close by."
When there is a storm, do not answer the phone because people can be struck by lightning through the phone. Electricity can go from the phone through your ear and into your brain. Many people (kids too) have been injured while talking on the phone during storms.
If you are playing outside and lightning strikes near by, you should go into a house, a building or a car (convertables are not safe). If you are in a car, be sure that the windows are rolled up. If you can count 20 seconds or less between the lightning and the thunder, the lightning was 4 miles away and the storm is close enough to hurt you. Remember that lightning can strike 10 miles away from a storm. You should decide with your parents how close to a storm is too close for you to be without shelter. Read the lightning safety links about this.
Swimming is not cool when there is a thunder storm around.
If you are on a sport team and there is a thunderstorm during a game or a practice, what should you do? Should you tell your coach or the person in charge, that the team should get off the field? If the coach says its just a little rain or thunder and not to worry about it, should you leave anyway and take shelter? This is a serious question. You could get kicked off the team if you leave, but your life is more important than the game. In 1998, a whole soccer team (with 11 players) was killed by lightning in Congo and in 1999, a whole football team was injured by lightning in Colorado. My advice is to talk about this question with your parents and with your coach and team, before the season begins. You can also share the lightning scientists' links on this page with your school so they can find professional advice.
I received an e-mail from the mother of a girl who was very badly injured by lightning just after she got off the school bus during a thunderstorm. Should the driver have kept her on the bus until the storm was over? I think that this is a question that parents and schools should talk about too.
I like PBS. I ask my friends to ask their parents to help PBS
Flash, Crash, Rumble and Roll by Franklyn M. Branley with pictures
by Barbara and Ed Emberley - Thomas Y. Crowell, New York 1985. It tells
a lot about weather and how it works in a way that kids can understand. .
LIGHTNING SAFETY INFORMATION
For up to date information by lightning scientists, see the
The National Weather Service lightning safety site is a good lightning safety reference site.
National Lightning Safety Institute (NLSI) Homepage (http://www.lightningsafety.com/). This site tells about safety for people, buildings, and other interesting things. It also has a section on Personal Lightning Safety Tips. I think that you should read this with your parents and share it with your teachers and your friends. Also, look at: http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_pls.html
Chuck Doswell at the National Severe Storms Laboratory
Lightning Safety Rules
from the Oahu Civil Defense Agency.
People all over the world have to think about lightning safety.
This link goes to Zambia in Africa and tells about
lightning and computer safety.
Lightning Telephone Danger report from Australia.
USA Today has a lightning information index at:
Ron Holle is a meteorologist, formerly with the National Severe Storms Laboratory. He is currently with Vaisala (formerly Global Atmospherics) which does real time tracking of lightning www.vaisala.com andwww.lightningstorm.com. Ron is an expert on lightning and lightning awareness. He helps me make sure that the information on my web page is correct.
The Franklin Institute
and the Theatre of Electricity
have interesting lightning pages and links. The Franklin Institute pages show
different kinds of lightning and tell about what causes it.
If you can, go see The Powers
of Nature exhibit. It opened at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in 1998
and is traveling around the country. I saw it in Philadelphia and it is really cool.
You can learn about thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanos and
real storm chasers. Other museums on the Powers of Nature schedule are: Los Angeles,
California Museum of Science - October, 1998; Columbus, OH, COSI - April, 1999; Ft.
Worth, Museum of Science & History - October, 1999; St. Paul, Museum of Science -
April, 2000; Boston, Museum of Science - October, 2000; Chicago, Museum of Science &
Industry - April 2001; and then back to the Franklin Institute - October, 2001.
Scientists at New Mexico Tech do a different kind of lightning mapping, in 3D.
The National Weather Service in Melbourne, Florida (Lightning Information Center)
has great lightning pages.
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/mlb/ltgcenter/ltgmain.html
A short Explanation of
Lightning by the Oahu Civil Defense Agency.
My dad thinks that Red Sprites and
Blue Jets are cool (he says mysterious because very little is known about them).
People study them at the University of Alaska, New Mexico Tech, Stanford University
(where my friend Emily's dad works) and other places. We first heard about them on
PBS Nova. These links tell about red sprites, elves and blue jets and they have
photo and movie links for them:
If you are interested in lightning, red sprites, elves, storms and tornados, then
you might also be interested in other planets, stars and galaxies. Scientists at
Project SETI (at the University of California) are using a giant radio telescope to
search the universe for radio signals produced by intelligent life in other parts of
the cosmos. One problem is that the job is so big that they need help with
processing the data. Did you know that you can help Project SETI with your home and
school computers? This might make a great science project. The Project SETI@home
web site will tell you all about this and let you sign up to help look for ET and
other space aliens, if you want to. You can find it at
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu and I've put a link to SETI@home at the bottom
of this web page.
COOL LIGHTNING PICTURES AND WEATHER INFORMATION
Chuck Doswell has a page about <"http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~doswell/ltgph.html">
Lightning Photography. He let me use one of his pictures for the the background on
this page. He also tells how to take lightning pictures.
Daniel Robinson's Lightning Page has pictures, experiments, links to maps and lots
of other stuff (http://wvlightning.com/gallery.html).
On Nova, I saw people shooting rockets into the sky to cause lightning. James
Mathis' pages show
Triggered Lightning and other lightning photos.
The Lighthouse page has Satellite and
Radar picture maps for many parts of the world. You can see where the big
storms are happening.
You can find links to web sites about weather and many other subjects for students
and teachers at Studyweb (http://www.studyweb.com).
PEOPLE WHO CAN HELP YOU IF YOU HAVE BEEN HIT BY LIGHTNING
Margaret Primeau, Ph.D.
does psychotherapy for people who are very scared of lightning
because they were hit by it. She is at the Loyola University Medical Center,
Department of Psychiatry. Her phone number is 708/216-3272 and
her fax number is: 708/216-5885.
Lightning Strike and Electrical Shock Victims, International
These people have all been hit by lightning or had bad electric
shocks. Some people are hurt very badly. The people in this group
try to help each other.
Thank you for visiting my web site. Please come again because I'm always adding new things about lightning.
Please let me know if you find any links or URLs to other sites on this page that do not work.
SPECIAL THANKS
I am grateful to María Cristina and her family from Bogata who are translating
parts of my web site into Spanish and to Kim and Joas from Kenya and
Tanzania, who are translating my web site into Kiswahili. My thanks also go to
Dr. Elisabeth Gourbière for helping to translate this web site into French so
French speaking children will also be able to learn about lightning safety.
She lives in France and does research on lightning injury and safety.
Thanks also to the many people who have sent me link updates, comments and suggestions for this web site.
This web site is dedicated in memory of my aunt Rosemary and also to
my grandmother and grandfather who are very special to me.
You can help scientists listen for ET (extra terrestrials or space aliens).
You have probably guessed that cats are my favorite animal. Here is a link to a neat web page with really cute cat animations (they have one about dogs too). It is all about cats and how to get to know them and take care of them. This site is run by volunteers who have a pet shelter and adoption service. They keep animals until homes are found for them. http://www.azstarnet.com/public/nonprofit/fair/catwise.htm
Back to my lightning introduction page.
Links to Awarding Organizations
If you didn't find the lightning information that you need,
[Please note that I don't endorse any advertisements that may come up on Google.]
Once you are in a safe place, you can take your mind off the storm by playing
games, singing songs, telling stories, reading books, or (my mom says) doing
your homework. My friend Deanna and I like to think of angels bowling and
their strikes causing thunder. This is a good time to practice math by counting
seconds between flashes and booms or crackles to guess how far away the
storm is. Lightning crackles are very close and very scary to me.
I've seen some neat TV shows about lightning, tornadoes and hurricanes.
and to write to their Congressmen about it. Libraries have lots of books about lightning and storms.
These are some books that I like:
Weather by Howard E. Smith, Jr. and Illustrated by Jeffrey K.
Bedrick. Doubleday, New York. 1990. It is about different kinds
of storms like tornadoes, hurricanes, lightning and hail and has really
great drawings of them.
Links to other lightning sites on the web.
Some of these links have neat stuff for kids and some are for you to
read with your parents.
Recomendations by the Lightning Safety Group,
American
Meteorological Society Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
This is a great place to find professional
answers to many lightning safety questions.
I think schools should read and use this. You
can also find it on web sites by Dr. Cooper, National Severe Storms Laboratory,
Global Atmospherics, and others.
in Norman, Oklahoma
gives advice about lightning safety and camping:
http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~doswell/tstm_camping_safety.html
http://206.251.19.76/weather/wlightn0.htm
OTHER LIGHTNING AND STORM INFORMATION
Check out FEMA's (Federal Emergency Management Agency) Disaster Connection:
Kids to Kids for disaster related stories by other kids. FEMA's site has a
lot of useful information about all kinds of disasters. [www.fema.gov/kids/k2k_sch1.htm]
Vaisala (formerly Global Atmospherics) knows when
lightning hits anywhere in the United States. Their web site has some free stuff
and links to other lightning sites. Lynne Shumaker, who works there, showed me the
things that they work on and helped me to understand more about lightning. You can see a lightning map at www.lightningstorm.com
It is sort of like they can "look" at a storm from above and from two sides:
http://ibis.nmt.edu/nmt_lms/index.html. They can put maps together and make movies.
To see a moving tornado storm, look at: http://ibis.nmt.edu/nmt_lms/tornado.html.
It takes almost forever to download, but then it's really fun to watch.
NASA's Lightning Primer and Lightning
Detection from Space. If you have homework about lightning, this is a good place
to start. It tells about what lightning is, history, space and lots of other
things.
New Mexico Tech (photos and movies) -
http://ibis.nmt.edu/sprites/sprites.html;
a good red sprite photo -
http://www.sai.msu.su/apod/ap951111.html;
FMA Research on red sprites - (photo
and links) - http://www.FMA-Research.com/;
Stanford University (research links)
- http://www-star.stanford.edu/~vlf/.
An amateur astronomer in Arizona took
pictures of red sprites with his video camera:
http://shutter.vet.ohio-state.edu/astronomy/sprites/index.htm. 
c/o Steve Marshburn, Sr.
214 Canterbury Road
Jacksonville, NC 28540-5307
Telephone and Fax Number: (910) 346-4708
I would like to get e-mail from other kids who have been hit by
lightning. Also, please write to me about other lightning links, books
and TV programs that should go on this web page. My e-mail address is
information@kidslightning.info. Because of spam, please describe your letter in the subject line. Also because of spam, I will sometimes change my e-mail address, so please check here for my latest address. Please forgive me if I'm not always able to answer, but it's hard for me to keep up
Thank you to Dr. Mary Ann Cooper of the University of Illinois
Hospital, Lynne Shumaker of Global Atmospherics, Ron Holle, Chuck Doswell and
Raul Lopez of the National Severe Storms Laboratory, Ken Howard and Al Moller of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Dr. Margaret Primeau at the
Chicago Medical School. They have helped me learn about
lightning and let me use information, links, maps and pictures. Mark Taylor
helped with programming questions and animation. And thank
you Elizabeth Anne, Ashlie and Georgiana for letting me use your stories.
DEDICATION
SOME NON-LIGHTNING THINGS- Keep your computer virus safe. -
Update and run your antivirus program at least once a week.
Also, use a firewall.
Project SETI@home
"SETI" means Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
Click on this link to learn all about SETI@home. It is fun and free.
Remember that you can use your browser back arrow to return to my lightning safety page again.
If you or your class want to learn about ancient Egypt or African wildlife in Zambia and Zimbabwe, these links will take you to information about videos of these countries.
Updated 24 August 2006
Copyright 2006 by the authors and Anubis Productions International. All rights reserved.
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